The unemployment rate in the Cariboo region was down again last month, but a closer look reveals anything but a rosy picture when it comes to the overall job market.
Vincent Ferro, a Labour Market Analyst with Stats Canada, says the jobless rate was 4.9 percent last month, down from 5.9 a year ago in November of 2017.
But he says it was not because more people were working…
“This November we have 76 thousand people working. A year ago there were 82,00 people working.
Ferro says there were also fewer people actually looking for work…
“The number of people participating in the labour market declined. We had 80,000 people in November and a year ago it was 87,000. So labour force fell, employment fell and that’s the cause of the unemployment rate declining.”
Ferro says the biggest drop in employment was in retail and wholesale trade, or sales, and he says employment was up slightly in manufacturing.
BC continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.4 percent, which is down from 4.8 a year ago.