By Charles Lefebvre

Medicine Hat’s unemployment rate hit 7.7 per cent in January

Feb 8, 2019 | 9:39 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat’s unemployment rate rose in January, according to the most recent report released by Statistics Canada.

The government organization released the monthly report for January 2019, showing Medicine Hat’s unemployment rate hit 7.7 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent in December 2018.

The number is down a full percentage point from January 2018, where the unemployment rate was at 8.7 per cent.

Statistics Canada cautions against month-to-month comparisons for the city of Medicine Hat, due to the smaller sample size.

When comparing the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region, the unemployment rate is at 5.4 per cent, up from 4.5 per cent last month, according to the province’s labour force statistics. One year ago, the region’s unemployment rate was 6.6 per cent.

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Provincially, Alberta lost jobs for the second straight month, pushing its unemployment rate up to 6.8 per cent. In December 2018, the unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent.

Nationally, the unemployment rate increased slightly to 5.8 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent in December 2018.

Statistics Canada says the private sector drove employment gains nationally, with 112,000 jobs added last month. Public sector employees remained largely unchanged, adding roughly 15,900 jobs. The number of self-employed workers fell by 61,000 last month.