Unemployment in the Red Deer region moved upward last month, despite an overall decrease for the province as a whole.
Statistics Canada’s latest labour force survey found a jobless rate of 4.0 per cent for the area in September, up from 3.7 per cent in August. The rate a year earlier was 3.7 per cent.
Provincewide, seasonally adjusted unemployment dropped to 4.4 per cent in September. In August, the Alberta average was 4.9 per cent and last September it was 4.4 per cent.
The Camrose-Drumheller region had the lowest unemployment rate in the province last month, at 2.8 per cent. The Lethbridge-Medicine Hat area was next at 3.4 per cent, followed by Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House (3.9 per cent), Red Deer, Calgary (4.6 per cent), Athabasca-Grande Prairie (4.9 per cent), Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake (5.5 per cent) and Edmonton (5.8 per cent).
Alberta’s unemployment rate was the second lowest in Canada, after Saskatchewan’s 3.5 per cent. The national average for September was 6.8 per cent, down 0.2 percentage points from August.
Alberta’s labour force increased by 9,100 people from August to September, but this was more than offset by a 21,200-position increase in employment. Since September 2013, employment in the province has climbed by 54,200 positions.