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Lethbridge-Medicine Hat jobless rate drops in April; more Canadians working from home

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Some good news on the local employment front last month, more of us were back working.

Statistic Canada’s latest jobs numbers released Friday morning (May 7) show the jobless rate in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region dropped to 8.7% in April.

That’s the lowest it’s been here in a several months, falling significantly from 9.5% in March. That could change though when the May numbers come out next month now that Alberta’s been put under tighter COVID-19 health measures.

The local stats here don’t reflect what’s going on across the country as a whole however. Canada’s overall unemployment rate last month inched up to 8.1% as many provinces were in the midst of strong health restrictions, mainly Ontario and British Columbia. To put that into perspective, 270,000 jobs were lost coast-to-coast.

One interesting thing of note is the number of Canadians working from home is becoming much more of a thing these days. That number jumped by quite a bit, 100,000 in April to more than 5.1 million people now making their home their regular workspace.

As for Alberta, the jobs picture in this province was nearly unchanged last month with an unemployment rate sitting at 9.0%.

Alberta Jobless Rate by Region April 2021

Lethbridge-Medicine Hat: 8.7%
Camrose-Drumheller: 7.6%
Calgary: 9.7%
Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House: 9.8%
Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River: 9.8%
Red Deer: 10.6%
Edmonton: 10.6%
Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake: 7.8%

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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