The local unemployment rate has tumbled below four per cent.
The latest Statistics Canada survey placed the figure for the Red Deer region at 3.9 per cent. That’s down from 4.9 per cent in October, which in turn had fallen from 5.4 per cent in September and 5.8 per cent in August.
In November 2012, the unemployment rate in and around Red Deer was 4.2 per cent.
Among Alberta’s eight regions, the lowest rate in November belonged to Lethbridge-Medicine Hat, which came in at 2.2 per cent.
Next was Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House at 3.5 per cent, followed by Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake (3.7 per cent), Athabasca-Grande Prairie (3.8 per cent), Red Deer, Camrose-Drumheller (4.2 per cent), Calgary (4.4 per cent) and Edmonton (4.6 per cent).
Alberta’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was 4.7 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points from October and 0.5 percentage points from November 2012. This rate was the second lowest in Canada, behind Saskatchewan’s 4.1 per cent. The national rate was 6.9 per cent, unchanged from October.
From October to November, Alberta’s labour force increased by 18,000 people while employment in the province increased by 10,600 positions. Full-time employment was up by 30,100 people, while part-time employment dropped by 19,400.
Between November 2012 and November 2013, employment in Alberta grew by 78,000 people. This accounted for 43.6 per cent of Canada’s employment growth during that period.