Little Change in Prince George’s Unemployment Rate

Jan 4, 2019 | 8:30 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — Little change in Prince George’s year-over-year unemployment rate.

Vincent Ferrao, labour market analyst with Statistics Canada, says Prince George’s unemployment rate last month was 5.8 per cent, down slightly from 5.9 per cent in December 2017.

He says the labour market shrunk by about 4,000 people in December 2018 and notes 2,800 people were looking for work last month, compared to 3,100 a year ago.

Better news in the Cariboo region though as Ferrao says the unemployment rate dropped one percentage point year-over-year to 5.3 per cent.

He notes the Cariboo also experienced a decline in the workforce from 81,200 in December 2017 to 75,100 last month.

“4,200 people were unemployed last month compared to 5,400 in December 2017.”

Provincially, Ferrao says B.C. continues to shine with the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.4 per cent while nationally the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6 per cent.