Prince George's unemployment rate stood at 6.2 per cent in December, up from 4.1 per cent for the same month in 2014, according to Statistics Canada labour market survey numbers released Friday.
The number of people holding down jobs declined to 47,200 from 51,400 over that time, while the number of unemployed seeking work rose to 3,100 from 2,200 and the number of working-age people unemployed and not seeking work rose to 21,600 from 17,800.
Statscan also released averages for the year as a whole and a similar trend was reflected.
The unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent for 2015, compared to 5.2 per cent for 2014, while the average number of people holding down jobs declined to 47,000 from 51,200, the number of unemployed looking for work rose to 3,200 from 2,800 and the number of working-age people unemployed and not seeking work rose to 21,500 from 17,200.
Month over month, the unemployment rate for December was lower than for November, when it stood at 6.5 per cent.
However, that was due largely to a 300-person increase in the number of unemployed not seeking work while those employed declined by 100.
The numbers are based on a three-month rolling average and do not separate full-time from part-time employment.
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