Prince George’s unemployment rate dropped nearly two percent between July 2016 and last month.
There are now 49,000 city residents employed – about 1,000 more than last year – which drops the rate from 7.7% to 5.8%.
Andrew Fields is a labour analyst with Stats Canada and reports almost all of these spots are full time. He didn’t have specific details about jobs in Prince George but has a breakdown of the Cariboo rate, which dropped from 8.3% to 6.6%, the equivalent of about 3,000 more people working.
“Most of the employment increases were in services-producing sectors such as information culture, some accommodation food services, health care, public administration.”
On a provincial level, BC’s unemployment rate which dropped slightly from 5.6% to 5.3%.
“The largest increase was in construction, there are about 20,000 more people working in that. There are about 19,000 more people in working in finance, insurance, real estate, and leasing, and there are some other gains spread across information and culture, manufacturing, accommodation, and food services,” says Fields.
As of the end of July, Canada’s unemployment rate is sitting at 6.4%.