Prince George, B.C. – The unemployment rate in Prince George was 7.4% last month,  up from 6.2 %  recorded in June of  last year.Statistics Canada Analyst Vincent Ferrao says the increase is largely due to  a shrinking of the labour  force in  P.G. Last month there were 46,100 in the labour force,  compared to 50,300 in  the same month a year ago

For the  Cariboo region ( which includes P.G.)  unemployment was  sitting at 7.9% last month   compared to  7.1%  in June  of last year,  the change is not statistically  significant says Ferrao.

Provincially, B.C. had a good month with  the unemployment rate in June  sitting at 5.8%,   down from  6.1%  in  the  same  month a year ago.  He says B.C. saw its  labour force increase by 19,000  over the  same period.

Nationally,  there was a slight decline, as unemployment  was  at 6.8%  down from 7% recorded  in June of 2014.