The unemployment rate in the Cariboo region was up in December.
Vincent Ferrao, a Labor Market Analyst with Stats Canada, goes over some of the numbers.
“The unemployment rate is at 4.9. That is up slightly from last year when it was 4.5. There were slightly more people unemployed. We have 4,400 people looking for work and last year we had 4,100.”
Ferrao says the number of people working was also down by about 25-hundred.
“We had 85,000 people working. A year ago there were 87,500 people working. Basically it was construction that saw fewer people working. We did see increases in wholesale and retail trade, and also in healthcare and social assistance.”
BC’s unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in December, behind only Quebec (4.0%) and Saskatchewan (4.1%).
The national jobless rate came in at an even 5 percent, down from 5.1 in November.
Ferrao says 104 thousand jobs were created across the country last month.