The city's unemployment rate hit a 16-month high of 8.5 per cent in January, according to Statistics Canada labour market
survey numbers issued Friday.
The number also represented a 0.6-percentage point increase from December and is in marked contrast to the 6.1 per cent unemployment rate Prince George saw in January 2011.
But dig a little deeper and the picture is not quite as bad - the number of people holding down jobs remained at roughly 49,000, the same total seen a year ago.
"The big difference is our labour force is now 1,000 people more than it was at the same time last year," Initiatives Prince George market analyst Tara Bogh said. "I think that what that is indicative of is confidence in the job market - we have more people coming in and taking on employment."
Month-over-month, the number of people unemployed rose by 300 to 4,300. A 100-person decline in the number of people working combined with a 200-person increase in those unemployed but seeking work
accounted for the difference.
"As more people come into the labour force there is that transitional period before they're absorbed into employment but what we do know is that there are a lot of companies out there
looking for employees," Bogh said.
"Hopefully, the people that are coming into the labour force have the skills that are needed to fill those jobs.
"Hopefully, they're matched well with the opportunities that are available."
For the Cariboo economic region, the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent, compared to 7.3 per cent in December.
The numbers for the city and the economic region are based on a three-month rolling average.
The province's unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent, a 0.1 point decline from December, and nationally, it was 7.6 per cent, a 0.1 point increase, both figures
seasonally adjusted.
