(Photo: The Canadian Press)

By Troy Gillard

latest numbers show...

Red Deer unemployment rate reaches 11% in April

May 8, 2020 | 10:02 AM

Alberta’s unemployment took a noticeable jump in April as non-essential businesses were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices hit rock bottom.

The latest numbers released Friday by Statistics Canada show the province’s jobless rate rose to 13.4% last month from 8.7% in March.

Since February, the last full month before the onset of the pandemic, Alberta has shed 226,000 full-time jobs and 134,900 part-time jobs, for a total of 360,900.

(Source: Statistics Canada)

Premier Jason Kenney has previously said the province’s jobless rate could climb as high as 25% as a result of the pandemic and falling oil prices.

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The Red Deer region unemployment rose to 11.1% from 10.2% in March and remains the highest regional jobless rate in Alberta.

Nationally, the Canadian economy lost almost two million jobs in April, which is a record high.

The loss of 1,993,800 comes on top of more than one million jobs lost in March.

Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate soared to 13.0 per cent as the full force of the pandemic hit compared with 7.8 per cent in March.

It was the second highest unemployment rate on record.

(With file from The Canadian Press)