Fewer people were working in the Cariboo region last month compared to a year ago, but once again the year over year unemployment rate dropped as there were also fewer people looking for work.
That sums up the labour picture in the Cariboo for February.
Emanuelle Bourbeau is a Labour Market Analyst with Stats Canada…
“In February employment declined by 3,300 in Cariboo compared with 12 months earlier, and the decline was mostly in part-time. Despite the decline in employment, the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.5 percent as fewer people search for work.”
Bourbeau says the jobless rate was 7.3 percent in February of 2018.
BC still has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.5 percent.
That was down slightly from 4.7 in January.
Getting back to the Cariboo, Bourbeau says the biggest declines in the job market were in the service-producing sectors, which includes wholesale and retail trade, healthcare and social assistance, and financial, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing