Unemployment Rate Change in P.G.
Friday, November 8, 2013 @ 7:02 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The latest unemployment rate for Prince George is sitting at 5.8%, down from October of last year when it was 6.6%. “That is not statistically significant” says Vincent Ferrao of Statistics Canada. He says the number of people employed in Prince George last month also dropped with 49,000 people working, compared to 52,400 who were employed in the same month a year ago.
In the Cariboo Region, the rate is 5.4%, compared to 7.0% in October of 2012. The number of people employed in the region was 83,700 last month, down from the 88,500 in October 2012.
Ferrao says there were declines in jobs in natural resources, manufacturing and education.
Provincially, B.C’s unemployment rate in October was virtually unchanged as it was 6.5%, down a tenth of a percentage point from October 2012 when it was 6.6%.
Nationally, the rate is now sitting at 6.9%, down from 7.4% of October 2012
Comments
“Nationally, the rate is now sitting at 6.9%, down from 7.4% of October 2012”
Hmm⦠wouldn’t be surprised that these numbers are down because people are leaving Canada as well. Just kidding, we know Canada’s population is growing because of the influx in Temporary Foreign Workers. ;-)
It’s hard to believe that the unemployment rate in the Cariboo has dropped significantly ove the past year while the number of people employed has also declined, by 5.5%. Are people retiring in droves, or moving away, working elsewhere and living in the Cariboo, or could the numbers provided by StatsCan be unreliable? The employment numbers would be interesing if presented alongside the total population numbers.
Nobody questions when the unemployment stats go up, only when they go down. Hmm…
“Nobody questions when the unemployment stats go up, only when they go down.”
A 5-6% unemployment rate is obviously really good news, but it’s only part of the story. 8000 less people employed in the Cariboo-PG area compared to a year ago is cause for concern, if it’s real. I don’t see evidence of this scale of job loss.
CL
EI only lasts one year so in one year you can loose 5.5% of the jobs in a region and still have the official unemployment go down as claims expire and they are no longer counted as unemployed.
Unemployment states should really be run with welfare stats. If unemployment goes down and welfare goes up then we can see where the transition is costing us. How come we never hear bout the rates of welfare and pensioners in the economy of a region?
You will never have 100% employment. In my view, there will always be a percentage who are unemployable for a variety of reasons.
unemployment rates go up – blame the government
unemployment rates go down – the government must be using bad figures
More like people leaving the region and the province – blame the government.
According to the news companies are hiring like mad from Europe. IPG just had a story on the news that the Irish are a comin’ because we don’t have people who want to work, or have the necessary skill set to work the jobs that are available. If a local welding company has to go to Ireland to get welders instead of our unemployed taking a 6 month course at CNC then we do have a employability problem in PG
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