The city's unemployment rate stood at 5.2 per cent in February, according to Statistics Canada labour market survey numbers released Friday.
Driven by a a 1,000-position decline in the number of people holding down jobs, it represented a 0.7-percentage-point increase from the month before.
But as far as Februarys go, it was still the lowest rate for the month going back to at least 2005, and was a definite improvement over the 8.1 per cent unemployment rate seen for the same month last year.
At 47,600 people holding down jobs, it was the second straight month that the total employed in the city was below 50,000, a threshold that was reached in June. By September it had peaked at 52,500 and has declined ever since.
B.C. Jobs Minister and Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Pat Bell predicted the picture will improve over the next few months.
"I think as you see some of the major projects starting to gain momentum - mine construction, the Rio Tinto Alcan project - we should see a return of jobs back in the market," Bell said.
He also cautioned that the numbers are based on a three-month rolling average, "so it doesn't necessarily reflect what actually happened in the last month."
But he also emphasized that the figures are much better than what the city went through in 1998, when the NDP held power in Victoria, and the unemployment rate was 14.1 per cent for the entire year.
Bobby Deepak, the NDP's candidate in Prince George-Mackenzie said that number needs to be put into context.
"At the time, we had the Asian economic crisis," Deepak said. "At the time, we had the Bre-X scandal that hit mining really hard, so he's picking years to serve his political purpose."
As for the number of people currently employed, Deepak suggested a significant portion must travel outside Prince George for work.
"Statistically, they would be marked as employed in Prince George but Prince George isn't creating these jobs that they are going to," Deepak said. "They are in other communities."
Deepak contended the Liberals have treated forestry as a sunset industry and policies must be put in place to restore employment in that sector.
"These are community jobs, they're not fly-in, fly-out jobs, they're in the community, they're family friendly and they're usually high paying," Deepak said.
In Prince George, the total unemployed but seeking work stood at 2,600 in February, up 300 from the month before, while those of working age who were unemployed but not seeking work rose by 600 to 20,500.
For the Cariboo economic region, the unemployment rate was 5.6 per cent, also a 0.7-percentage point increase over January but down from 7.8 per cent for February 2012.
"They went to breakup a little bit earlier in the Cariboo this year," Bell said. "As you know, the winter has been relatively mild so a lot of the mills are starting to pull back on the amount of activity in the forests but that will return in the summer months."
