The September labour statistic numbers show both the country and B.C. saw increases in employment for the first month of fall.
Prince George specifically saw the unemployment rate drop 0.1 of a percentage point to 4.9 per cent while the Cariboo region (Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100 Mile House and McBride), saw the unemployment rate stay the same at 5 per cent.
A year ago, the Cariboo region was at 6.3 per cent.
The largest drop was seen in B.C. as a whole. The unemployment rate for August was 5.3 per cent. The numbers released today (Oct. 5) by Statistics Canada show that B.C. dropped a whopping 1.1 percentage points to sit at 4.2 per cent for the month of September. B.C. still holds the lowest unemployment rate in the country.
The first eight months of 2018 show a 0.7 per cent increase for the province.
B.C. saw 33,000 jobs added in September, mainly driven by 26,000 full-time positions. Growth was seen in health care and social assistance, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and natural resources.
Nationally, Canada's unemployment rate dropped 0.1 of a percentage point to 5.9 per cent for September. which saw a total of 63,000 jobs added; 28,000 of those were in the construction industry, which offset declines in the previous two months.
Employment also rose by 12,000 in public administration while 9,000 more were employed in agriculture.
There was a decline of 10,000 jobs in the business, building and other support services while culture and recreation decreased by 17,000, mainly driven by declines in Quebec.
Self-employed workers also fell by 35,000 in the month.
