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Lethbridge-Medicine Hat unemployment rate up to 9.8% in June; Alberta rate stays at 15.5%

The local employment situation worsened last month, despite a very slight improvement in the overall jobs picture across the country.

Statistics Canada releasing the jobs numbers for June as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a major factor on the labour market. The agency says the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat jobless rate increased to 9.8% up from 9.0% in May. Even with that jump, this region still has the lowest jobless rate in the province.

Alberta’s rate stayed the same at 15.5%, unchanged from May. The Banff, Jasper, and Grande Prairie areas have the highest unemployment in the province at 16.5%, followed by the Edmonton region at 15.8%.

The data released Friday morning (July 10) shows from coast to coast, the pandemic has started to ease its grip on the country with most provinces seeing some improvement in employment.

When it comes to the country as a whole, Canada’s jobless rate fell to 12.3% in June, down from the record-high of 13.7% in May There were still 2.5 million Canadians out of work last month, but that’s an improvement of more than half when 5.5 million people were sitting without jobs between March and April.

Alberta Jobless Rate by Region June 2020

Lethbridge-Medicine Hat: 9.8%
Camrose-Drumheller: 12.8%
Calgary: 15.0%
Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House: 16.5%
Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River: 16.5%
Red Deer: 13.4%
Edmonton: 15.8%
Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake: 11.6%

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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