Jobless rate drops slightly to 5.1% in November

The jobless rate across Canada didn't budge much last month.

Statistics Canada says the employment rate fell by a single basis point to 5.1 per cent in November, down from 5.2 per cent the month earlier.

The agency says just 10,000 jobs were created across Canada in November, with job losses in construction, wholesale and retail trade offset by gains in industries ranging from finance, insurance and real estate to information, culture and recreation.

BC's unemployment rate nudged up two basis points to 4.4 per cent in November while Abbotsford-Mission and Victoria recorded identical drops of just under one per cent, the rate in Kelowna climbed more than half-a-point to 4.9 per cent and Vancouver remained static at 4.4 per cent.

BC Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon says B-C lost nearly 14,000 jobs last month, most of them part-time positions, as the Bank of Canada's inflation-fighting interest rate hikes take effect.

But Kahlon says the province gained just under nine-thousand full-time jobs in November and continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada.

He says the economic recovery rate of 104 per cent also makes BC a leader among the other provinces and territories, and over 100,000 more people are working now in B.C. than before the pandemic.

Kahlon was reacting to the monthly employment figures showing the number of people looking for work in BC jumped two-tenths of a point to 4.4 per cent in November.