March was a good month in the Cariboo region when it comes to the job market.
Andrew Fields, a Labour Market Analyst with Stats Canada, says the unemployment rate was 6.3% last month, down from 6.7 in February, and 7.1% in March of 2025.
It was also the lowest its been since last July.
Fields says there were roughly 35-hundred more people working in the region last month, compared to a year ago.
“In March there were 83,000 people employed in Cariboo, and there were about 5,600 people who were unemployed and searching for work. For employment (in March of 2025), there were about 35-hundred more people working and at the same time there were about the same time number of people unemployed last March, so there were about 6,000 unemployed last March.”
Fields says most of the increases came in one area.
“Manufacturing, basically there were around 34-hundred more people working in manufacturing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all the net change comes from manufacturing because there were declines spread across some other industries. Natural resources, there were about 2,000 fewer people working, so there are some offsets. Construction was almost completely unchanged, things like educational services, there were about 1,000 more people working.”
The provincial jobless rate came in at 6.7%, unchanged from February, but 6th out of the provinces.
Nova Scotia was even lower at 6.6%
The national unemployment rate in March was also 6.7%.
- Saskatchewan – 5.0 per cent
- Quebec – 5.4 per cent
- Manitoba – 5.6 per cent
- Alberta – 6.5 per cent
- Nova Scotia – 6.6 per cent
- British Columbia – 6.7 per cent
- New Brunswick – 7.0 per cent
- Prince Edward Island – 7.3 per cent
- Ontario – 7.6 per cent
- Newfoundland and Labrador – 9.5 per cent
