Unemployment rate up slightly in Lethbridge

The unemployment rate jumped slightly this month for our region. Trevor Lewington with Economic Development Lethbridge says the unemployment rate rose from 4.1 to 4.2 per cent this month which is not a big change and variation is expected from month to month.  

“That increase was actually driven by a few less people working in the economy, but also a slight pullback in people looking for work. So both of those numbers increased that number. But we still have the lowest unemployment rate in all of Western Canada. So only Saskatoon is at the same level. And in our city specifically, we saw the manufacturing sector gain about 1,100 jobs. So very strong growth in manufacturing, where we saw some decline, was actually in retail and hospitality, where we saw about 700 jobs lost.”

Lewington adds, a point one change is not a big change.