By Greg Fry

Month-over-month unemployment drops in Kamloops

Feb 9, 2018 | 10:04 AM

KAMLOOPS — Statistics Canada says the month-over-month unemployment rate has dropped in Kamloops.

Labour Analyst Vincent Ferrao says the rate fell from 10.4 per cent in December to 9.3 per cent last month.

He says the labour force increased from 67,600 people to 78,100 year-over-year, with the greatest gains in construction, transportation and warehousing, retail, and wholesale trade, finance, real estate and leasing.

Despite the gains, Ferrao says the year-over-year unemployment is still up from 7.7 per cent in January, 2017.

Provincially, B.C. is still the best in Canada at 4.8 per cent. That’s up from 4.6 per cent in December.

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: John Horgan had 'the gift'

11h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: New 'iconic' Kamloops tourist attraction in development

Nov 13, 2024

Question of the Week

Would you be inconvenienced by a postal strike?

Nov 12, 2024

Nationally, the employment rate rose from 5.8 per cent in December to 5.9 per cent in January.

Overall, 88,000 jobs were lost in January — the steepest one-month decline in the Canadian labour market in nine years. 

Even so, the economy still saw employment growth of 1.6 per cent over the year with 289,000 more jobs created.