Unemployment rate remains high in Northeastern BC

The unemployment rate in northeastern B.C. Still remains high.

The unemployment rate in the region is currently sitting at 9.1 per cent which is a 0.1 per cent increase over January 2011.

B.C. Stats reports the unemployment rate is high for this time of year since the rate was only 4.4 per cent in February of 2010. The current rate puts our region in a third-place only slightly ahead of the Thompson-Okanagan (9.3%) and Abbotsford (10.3%) regions for the worst unemployment in B.C.

The province as a whole saw a big jump in the unemployment rate from 7.5 per cent to 8.3 per cent.

Furthermore, B.C. lags behind the rest of the western provinces. Manitoba currently has a 5.6 per cent unemployment rate, while Saskatchewan sits at 6.1 per cent and Alberta sits at 5.8 per cent.