By Troy Gillard

Latest numbers are in

Red Deer unemployment rate down in November

Dec 4, 2020 | 11:20 AM

Red Deer’s unemployment rate took another drop last month, going from 11.1 per cent in October to 10.4 per cent.

The local jobless rate in November 2019 was 6.5 per cent.

Alberta’s jobless rate for the month of November was 11.1 per cent, second highest in Canada and up slightly from October’s 10.7 per cent.

Almost 11,000 jobs were lost in November (-0.5 per cent), with employment in the province down by 122,500 compared to a year ago (-5.2 per cent). Full-time positions fell by 1.6 per cent (29,400) while part-time employment increased by 4.4 per cent (18,600).

Of note, the latest labour force survey reflects labour market conditions during the week of November 8 to 14 before new public health restrictions were introduced in Alberta at the end of the month.

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(Source: Alberta Labour/Statistics Canada)

“With the hope of several COVID-19 vaccines on the horizon, our focus remains on protecting both the lives and livelihoods of Albertans. Economic recovery from this pandemic will not be a straight path. To get Albertans back to work, we are focused on implementing our recovery plan to rebuild and diversify our economy,” Doug Schweitzer, Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation said in a statement.

“After six months of positive job growth with an overall recovery from pre-pandemic levels of 247,000 jobs and 10,000 new private sector jobs over the last month, we have seen encouraging signs of a recovery that is a credit to small businesses across Alberta. We will continue to support them as we move forward out of this pandemic.”

“There is no credible way Jason Kenney can continue to claim that he is somehow protecting the economy by refusing to take action to slow the spread of COVID-19,” suggested Deron Bilous, NDP Critic for Economic Development and Innovation. “The UCP’s lack of action and unwillingness to support workers and small business means that hundreds of thousands of Albertans have lost their jobs without any help from their Premier.”

The national unemployment rate fell to 8.5 per cent compared with 8.9 per cent in October.

Canada is still down 574,000 jobs from before the pandemic, as the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show job growth continued to slow last month.

The economy added 62,000 positions last month, down from 84,000 in October, with gains mostly focused in full-time work.

(With file from The Canadian Press)