The jobless rate in the Cariboo remains at almost a four year low.
It remained at 5 percent in September, down from 6.3 percent a year ago in September of 2017, and the lowest it’s been since February of 2015.
However, as Stats-Canada Labour Market Analyst Vincent Ferro explains, it’s not because there are more people working in the region….
“Basically a decline in the number of people participating in the labour market. The number of people in the labour force fell by 32-hundred, so there are 85,600 people either working or looking for work this September and a year ago it was 88,800.”
Ferro says the number of people working in the region was down slightly from a year ago, with most of the decline in part-time employment.
“In terms of employment we have 81,300 people working this September. A year ago it was 83,300. In terms of the full-time, part-time split. The full-time stayed about the same, 67,600 people worked full-time in September. A year ago it was 67,800, so not much change. Part-time fell a little bit. We had 43-hundred people working part-time this September, compared with 56-hundred a year ago.”
Ferro says there was a slight increase in the number of people working in construction, and some minor declines in transportation and warehousing.
BC continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country at just 4.2 percent.
The next closest is Quebec at 5.3