By Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Unemployment in southern Alberta now second-highest in province

Mar 9, 2018 | 7:46 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The region that includes Lethbridge now has the second-highest unemployment in the province.

The unadjusted three-month moving average for the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region reached 6.9 per cent in February, up from 6.6 per cent in January. Only Calgary had a higher rate, 7.7 per cent, up from 7.5.

The region with the lowest unemployment continues to be Camrose-Drumheller, at 4.1 per cent. A year ago, it had the highest, at 9.7. Red Deer was stable at 5.5 per cent, Edmonton declined slightly to 6.7, Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake was also down, at six per cent, and the combined Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River region sank to 5.3 per cent.

The Alberta Labour Force report released by the province showed a net gain of 2,300 jobs, which, when combined with a decline in the total labour force, pushed the unemployment rate down from seven to 6.7 per cent.

There was little change in the seasonally-adjusted job numbers for goods-producing sectors of the economy. On the service side, education and health care showed increases while there were declines in the professional/scientific/technical and information/culture/recreation sectors.

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Alberta’s 6.7 per cent unemployment rate was higher than all but the Atlantic provinces. Canada’s rate declined slightly to 5.8 per cent.