The city's unemployment rate stood at 4.9 per cent in September as the number of people holding down jobs slipped below 50,000 for the first time in a half year, according to a Statistics Canada labour market survey numbers.
The outcome is also a bit of a mixed result when compared to last year. Although the unemployment rate at that time was 5.7 per cent, the number of people working was 49,400 compared to 49,000 currently.
The total labour force amounted to 51,500 last month, 900 fewer than at the same point last year, but the number looking for work was 2,500, or 500 fewer than in September 2017. The number of people of working age not participating in the workforce was 21,300, a rise of 1,200.
In August, the unemployment rate was 4.4 per cent, 50,400 were working, 2,300 were seeking employment and 19,900 were not participating.
The numbers are based on a three-month rolling average and do not separate part-time from full-time employment. The accuracy of the most recent unemployment rate is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points 68 per cent of the time.
The full report is posted with this story at pgcitizen.ca.
