By Liam Verster

Labour Force Statistics

Unemployment rate for Grande Prairie and area dropped in December

Jan 8, 2021 | 9:20 AM

The economic region that includes Grande Prairie and the Peace Country saw the unemployment rate decrease in December, while the provincial rate dipped by a tenth of a percentage.

The Banff – Jasper – Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca – Grande Prairie – Peace River economic area saw it’s unemployment rate go from 10.3 per cent in November to 9.5 in December. However, that rate is still much higher than the 5.9 rate recorded in December 2019.

The change of 0.8 per cent is tied with Red Deer for the second biggest decrease in unemployment in the province. Only the Camrose – Drumheller area saw a bigger change, as the rate fell from 11.4 to 10.1 per cent.

Those decreases were undercut however by increased rates in the Lethbridge – Medicine Hat economic region, where unemployment rose from 9.6 to 10.5 per cent.

Graphic courtesy of Statistics Canada and the Alberta Government

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Meanwhile, Alberta as a whole saw the unemployment rate decrease from 11.1 to 11.0 per cent in December.

This change comes despite a decrease in the labour force from 2,493,400 in November to 2,476,100. The number of employed Albertans fell from 2,216,600 to 2,204,700, however, the amount of unemployed people in the province also fell from 276,700 to 271,400 in December.

Graphic courtesy of Statistics Canada and the Alberta Government

The unemployment seemed to hit youths, particularly female youths, the hardest in December. There was a 0.3 per cent increase in the unemployment rate for males age 15-24, but females in that same age group saw the unemployment rate climb by 2.5 per cent in that same time period.

Graphic courtesy of Statistics Canada and the Alberta Government

In contrast to the provincial change, Canada as a whole saw it’s unemployment rate rise from 8.5 in November to 8.6 per cent in December.

Alberta recorded the second highest unemployment rate in the Country, second only to Newfoundland and Labrador, where the rate was recorded at 12.3 per cent in December.

Contrarily, Alberta still remains the second highest in provincial employment rates at 61.4 per cent, second only to Saskatchewan’s 61.9 percent. Alberta’s rate is also still higher than the national average, which was recorded at 59.3 per cent in December 2020.

Graphic courtesy of Statistics Canada and the Alberta Government