The Cariboo region’s year-over-year unemployment rate dropped by more than 3% in October !
Julian Alvarez, a Labour Market Analyst with Stats Canada, says “the unemployment rate was 6.1 %, which was 3.2 % lower than October of the previous year.”
Alvarez says there were roughly 66-hundred more people working in the region last month compared to October of 2025.
“There were 84,000 people employed in the Cariboo region. Most of the people employed were working full-time positions. Out of those 84,000, 70,000 were working full-time. The number of employed people rose by 6,600 and the number of unemployed people decreased , so there were about 5,500 unemployed people, and this was 2,400 less than last year.”
Alvarez says most of the gains were in the service producing sector.
“We saw an almost 3,000 increase in finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing. We saw an increase of 2,200 in accommodation and food services and an increase of 2,300 in public administration. On the other side, we saw the goods producing sector lost some employment compared to last year and the industry that posted the largest decrease was manufacturing. There were around 5,300 people employed in manufacturing, and this was 1,500 less people than last year. We also saw a small decline in transportation and warehousing, a 1,300 decrease.”
The national unemployment rate was 6.7% last month, up from 6.5 in September.
BC’s jobless rate was 6.3%, down from 6.4, but still just 5th among the provinces.
Manitoba has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at an even 5%.
