Red Deer experienced a slight rise in its unemployment rate in September, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Friday.
The region had an unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent this past month, which is slightly up from the 4.4 per cent in August. The unemployment rate in September 2021 was nine per cent.
Despite the unemployment rate rising, there was a notable rise in full-time employment – there were 84,300 full-time members of the workforce in September, which is 2,300 more than August. Meanwhile, part-time employment decreased to 20,300, from 21,200 the previous month.
The reason for the slight increase in the unemployment rate was due to the labour force growing by 1,400 to 109,500. The region’s participation rate in September was 60.9 per cent, which is up from August’s 60.2 per cent.
Alberta’s unemployment rate in September also saw a slight increase to 5.5 per cent – the rate was 5.4 per cent in August.
“While Alberta’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.5 per cent, both our employment and participation rates increased and remain the highest in the country at 65.2 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively,” said Tanya Fir, minister of jobs, economy and innovation.
“We know that Albertans are hard-working and these numbers are clear proof of that. More Albertans are looking for work and more of them are working than anywhere else in Canada.”
Red Deer had the second lowest unemployment rate of all of the province’s listed areas in September. Camrose-Drumheller’s rate was 6.6 per cent, Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake was 6.2 per cent, Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grand Prairie-Peace River were at 5.7 per cent, Calgary sat at 5.9 per cent and Edmonton had 5.2 per cent. The only region lower than Red Deer was Lethbridge-Medicine Hat, which had a 3.3 per cent unemployment rate last month.
Between September 2021 and September 2022, employment across the province increased by 96,900. The number of unemployed Albertans decreased by 63,600 over the same period.
In September 2022, the industries that had the most employment decreases from the previous month were information, culture and recreation (-10,400), public administration (-5,600), agriculture (-3,300), and Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas (-2,400).
Industries that had the most employment gains over the same period were professional, scientific and technical services (+9,500), construction (+5,400), wholesale and retail trade (+4,000), and health care and social assistance (+3,500).
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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