Red Deer area January unemployment rate lowest in Alberta

RED DEER- For the second month in a row the Red Deer area unemployment rate was the lowest in Alberta.

It was 4.4 per cent in January, unchanged from December.

The Alberta rate rose from 6.4 per cent in December to 6.8 last month after nearly 16,000 jobs were lost.

Nationally, more people started looking for jobs in January, and that pushed the unemployment rate up from a 43-year low of 5.6 per cent to 5.8 per cent.