Red Deer area unemployment rate up in July

RED DEER- The Red Deer area unemployment rate rose to 7.4% in July from June’s 7.1%, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada.

The Alberta rate also climbed from 6.6% to 7.0%.

Nationally, the jobless rate rose from 5.5% in June to 5.7% last month as the economy lost 24,200 jobs. About half of the job losses came in Alberta.

The results are worse than expected as economists had predicted a gain of 12,500 jobs in July.