Region’s unemployment rate down

Mar 9, 2018 | 6:23 AM

Our region’s unemployment rate dropped in February.

It is now 5.3 per cent, down from 5.9 per cent in January and 6.0 per cent in December.

Our region includes Grande Prairie and stretches from Jasper to Peace River.

Across the country, the economy added 15,400 net new jobs last month and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 per cent but the gains were due to a surge in part-time work that offset a decline in full-time positions.

Statistics Canada’s latest labour force survey also says the job gains in February were driven by an increase of 50,300 in public-sector jobs.

Compared with 12 months earlier, the overall job market added 282,500 positions for an increase of 1.5 per cent and all of that year-over-year growth came from full-time work.

For February, the report also found that average hourly wage growth, which has been scrutinized by the Bank of Canada ahead of interest-rate decisions, stayed solid at 3.1 per cent.

-with files from The Canadian Press

by Glory Przekop