The city's unemployment rate stood at an estimated 4.1 per cent in December, according to recently-released Statistics Canada labour market survey numbers.
That's down from 7.6 per cent for the same month in 2020 but the decline appears to be the product of an increase in the number of people of working age not participating in the work force.
The count on that front stood at 26,200, compared to 22,600 for December 2020 while the number of employed stood at 53,500 this past month, down by 100. The number of people seeking work stood at 2,300, compared to 4,400 in December 2020.
The month-over-month comparison showed some improvement as the unemployment rate for November 2021 was 5.4 per cent, with 52,500 employed and 3,000 seeking work.
The numbers are estimates based on phone surveys.
For December, the figure for December is considered accurate to within plus-or-minus 0.8 percentage points, 67 per cent of the time, for a swing from as low as 3.3 to as high as 4.9 per cent.
For December 2020, accuracy stands at plus or minus 1.1 percentage points, for a range of 6.5 to 8.8 per cent.
For November 2021, accuracy is plus or minus 1.0 percentage points, for a range of 4.4 to 6.4 per cent.
