By Justin Goulet with files from The Canadian Press

Employment

Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region’s jobless rate at 6.5 percent in May

Jun 7, 2019 | 6:43 AM

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the economy added 27,700 jobs across Canada in May, far more than economists expected.

The unemployment rate also fell to a record low of 5.4 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent in April.

Economists had expected a gain of 8,000 jobs for the month and the unemployment rate to remain at 5.7 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

The better-than-expected increase in the number of jobs follows a record 106,500 jobs that were added in April. The increase in jobs was made up entirely of full-time employment as there was no change in the number of part-time jobs.

Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for all employees, a key indicator monitored by the Bank of Canada ahead of its interest-rate decisions, 2.8 per cent in May, up from 2.5 per cent in April.

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Below are the unemployment rates for May by province (numbers from April are in brackets):

Newfoundland and Labrador – 12.4 percent (11.7)

Prince Edward Island – 9.0 (8.6)

Nova Scotia – 6.5 (6.9)

New Brunswick – 7.2 (8.0)

Quebec – 5.0 (4.9)

Ontario – 5.2 (6.0)

Manitoba – 5.0 (5.2)

Saskatchewan – 5.2 (5.4)

Alberta – 6.7 (6.7)

British Columbia – 4.3 (4.6)

ALBERTA, LETHBRIDGE & AREA

Focusing on Alberta’s economic regions, Camrose-Drumheller saw the highest unemployment rate for the month of May at 8.9 per cent (a decrease from April’s 9.3 percent).

For the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region, the jobless rate was listed at 6.5 percent. In April, it was at 6.4 percent and in May of 2018, the rate was at 5.2 percent.

The following is break-down of the unemployment rates in the rest of Alberta’s economic regions (in brackets is the rate from April 2019):

Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake – 6.0 percent (6.3)

Edmonton – 7.0 percent (7.0)

Red Deer – 7.5 percent (6.5)

Calgary – 6.8 percent (7.5)

Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grand Prairie-Peace River – 5.7 percent (5.4)

According to the numbers from Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for both men and women combined age 15 and older was listed at 6.7 percent last month.

For youth ages 15 to 24 (men and women combined), the rate was laid out at 11.0 percent and for adults (men and women combined, 25 and older), the jobless rate was at 6.0 percent in May, 2019.

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