By Charles Lefebvre

City unemployment rate up slightly in November

Dec 7, 2018 | 9:39 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The City of Medicine Hat’s unemployment rate is slightly up from last month, but down compared to where it was one year ago.

According to a report from Statistics Canada, the city’s unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent in November, up nearly a full percentage point from October, where it sat at 4.6 per cent.

Statistics Canada cautions against month to month comparisons for Medicine Hat, due to the small sample size.

In the region of Medicine Hat-Lethbridge, also listed in the report, the unemployment rate was 3.9 per cent.

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Bertrand Leveille, a labour market analyst with Statistics Canada, says the unemployment rate in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge has largely remained at a similar level over the past year.

“There are some industries where there are small increases over the last 12 months,” he said over the phone from Ottawa. “But it’s also balanced by some decreases in some other industries, for example in agriculture and public administration. But, those numbers are very small and not necessarily statistically significant, which means when we aggregate all of this, the variation in employment in Lethbridge-Medicine Hat is basically flat.”

In November 2017, the unemployment rate in Medicine Hat sat at 6.3 per cent.

The job report also had good news for the province, as the unemployment rate in Alberta dropped a full percentage point to sit at 6.3 per cent.

Nationally, the unemployment rate is at 5.6 per cent, the lowest number since Statistics Canada began tracking unemployment data in 1976.

Leveille says any job changes as a result of the oil price differential will likely be visible in the December job report, which will be released on January 4.