By Charles Lefebvre

National unemployment down, but local unemployment rate rises in December

Jan 5, 2018 | 1:41 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — While the national unemployment is trending downwards, Medicine Hat’s rate has continued to rise, according to the latest release from Statistics Canada.

Across Canada, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 per cent in December, down from 5.9 per cent in November. The rate for December is the lowest number since comparable data was released in 1976.

However, Medicine Hat’s unemployment rate rose to 7.5 per cent, up from 6.3 per cent in November.

However, the numbers show 1,700 more people entered the workforce in December, pushing the number of employed up.

The agency cautions against a month-to-month comparison for the numbers in Medicine Hat, due to the small sample size.

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Statistics Canada also tracks the unemployment rate for the Medicine Hat and Lethbridge region. In December, it sat at 5.9 per cent, slightly up from 5.4 per cent in November, but down from 6.4 per cent in December 2016.

Vincent Ferrao, an analyst with Statistics Canada, says in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region, increases in several industries helped fuel the changes through the year., but they were offset by losses in other industries.

For example, jobs in construction declined over the year, from 15,100 employed in 2016 to 13,200, along with accommodation and food services (13,100 in December 2016 to 8,800 in 2017), financial services and leasing (7,100 in December 2016 to 5,000 in December 2017).

However, there were increases in manufacturing (from 9,800 in 2016 to 12,100 in 2017), retail and wholesale trade (19,900 to 21,000 in 2017), transportation and warehousing (from 4,00o to 6,800) and the professional, scientific and technical services (from 6,100 to 7,900).

“There are a number of industries where employment went up, however they were more than offset by declines in others,” said Ferrao over the phone from Ottawa.

Ferrao says the numbers for Alberta continue to show a positive trend in terms of employment, compared to one year ago. In December 2016, the unemployment rate in Alberta sat at 8.5 per cent, and went down to 6.9 per cent in December 2017.

“For Alberta, employment grew by 2.4 per cent in 2017, and the national average was 2.3 per cent, so Alberta ended the year on a positive note,” he said.

Overall employment increased by 55,000 jobs in Alberta between December 2016 and December 2017.