By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter) With files from Statistics Canada

Local jobless rate dips while Provincial and National numbers stagnate

Oct 7, 2016 | 9:35 AM

LETHBRIDGE –  There is a differing unemployment picture depending on whether you look through the national, provincial or local frame.

Locally, the jobless rate dropped more than half a point from 7.3 per cent in August to 6.7 in September. That’s the second lowest rate in the province – just a tick off of the Grande Prairie region which sits at 6.6 per Cent.

While that may appear to be good news, the perspective is that the local jobless rate in September of 2015 was 5.2 per cent and between October and December of 2014, the rate fluctuated between 2.2 per cent and 2.9.
Provincially, the rate ticked up a tenth of a point to 8.5 per cent.

Back in 2014, the province registered the lowest unemployment rates in the country, hovering in the 4.5 per cent range. Now, the province is at the upper end of the scale.

Other province’s, which once lagged behind Alberta, are now out ahead. The rate in B.C. sits at 5.7 per cent, while Saskatchewan at 6.8, Manitoba 6.4, Ontario 6.6 and Quebec 6.9 per cent.

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Nationally, figures show the jobless rate held steady at 7 per cent for the second month in a row, in spite of the fact that the economy created more than 67,000 new jobs last month. Statistics Canada notes the flat jobless number is due to the fact that more people started looking for work.