By Gary McKinnon

RECORD LEVELS

Red Deer area unemployment rate continues to rise

Jun 5, 2020 | 8:59 AM

A Labour Force Survey released Friday says Alberta gained 28,000 jobs in May.

The latest survey by Statistics Canada follows a cumulative decline of 361,000 jobs from February to April.

The job increases in Alberta were entirely driven by the service sector, after the province allowed some businesses such as restaurants and hair salons to reopen starting May 14.

Still, the unemployment rate in Alberta has increased by 2.1 percentage points to 15.5%, which is the second highest in the country.

The Red Deer area unemployment continues to climb, reaching 12.7% in May from 11.1% in April.

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Last year at this time our area unemployment rate sat at 7.5%.

National numbers are not much better as the jobless rate hit a new record high of 13.7% in May, but that is much lower than the 15% figure economists had predicted.

The unemployment rate for May would have been 19.6% if the report factored in people who stopped looking for work.

Stats Canada reports the national economy added 289,600 jobs last month as many businesses started to re-open and more people started looking for work.

Three-million jobs were lost over March and April, and about 2.5 million more people had their hours cut.

This morning Bombardier announced it was cutting 2,500 workers from its aircraft-making division as demand for its private jets has plummeted.

(With files from Canadian Press)