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Alberta unemployment jumps in January, up locally too

For the second time in three months, employment declined in Alberta, down roughly another 19,000 jobs last month.

Statistics Canada releasing its January jobs numbers Friday morning (Feb.7).

The Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region experienced a jump in unemployment to 4.5%. That’s up half a percentage point from December when it was an even 4.0%.

Here in Alberta, the provincial rate jumped in January to 7.3 percent from 7.0%. It’s the highest rate for any province outside the maritimes.

The good news is the overall Canadian jobless rate fell slightly last month to 5.5%.

The national stats agency says roughly 35,000 mainly full-time jobs, were created across the country.

Alberta Jobless Rate by Region Jan. 2020

Lethbridge-Medicine Hat: 4-5%
Camrose-Drumheller: 5.1%
Calgary: 6.9%
Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House: 6.5%
Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River: 6.5%
Red Deer: 7.4%
Edmonton: 7.9%
Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake: 5.3%

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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