There were 11,000 fewer jobs in British Columbia in October compared with September – the highest loss of any province in the country, according to Statistics Canada numbers released this morning.
However, the provincial unemployment rate actually dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7%, which is due to the fact that fewer people are now participating in the labour force.
Employment has grown by 1.3% compared with the same period last year.
Nationally, the unemployment rate remained at 7.4% in October compared with September, which follows two consecutive months of increases. Year-over-year, the country’s full-time employment rate has increased 1.3%, or 229,000 jobs.
Alberta and Saskatchewan continue to have the lowest rates of unemployment in the country, at 4.5% and 4.7% respectively. The highest rates are found in the Maritime provinces, with Newfoundland and Labrador having the worst figures in the country with 11.9% unemployment.
