The number of Prince George residents collecting Employment Insurance stood at 1,900 in January, according to Statistics Canada.
That's down slightly from 1,930 in December but still well above 1,500 seen at the same point last year. However, it's still well down from the peak for January of 3,150 seen in 2010 during the recession.
The December 2016 total was the highest seen in 56 months. In May 2011, there were 1,980 people collecting EI.
The city's unemployment rate in January stood at 6.4 per cent, according to Statistics Canada labour market survey numbers, up from 4.2 per cent seen in January 2015 as the number of people working declined to 46,500 from 50,200.
