August labour force numbers released yesterday

A7

BY TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

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New Brunswick's unemployment rate fell slightly between July and August, dropping by 0.4 per cent.

The provincial unemployment rate now stands at 8.4 per cent, according to August Labour Force numbers released by Statistics Canada, yesterday.

Year-to-year, the jobless rate in New Brunswick is 0.6 per cent above what it was in August 2007.

Moncton's unemployment rate went up slightly during the month of August, from 6.1 per cent in July to 6.4 per cent in August.

Fredericton had an unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent last month while Saint John's jobless rate stood at 7.1 per cent.

The provincial numbers have been seasonally adjusted by Statistics Canada while the city numbers have not.

Provincially, the labour force was down by 0.3 per cent settling at 400,000 workers. About 366,500 people were working in New Brunswick last month with approximately 307,900 of those people having full-time positions (up 0.6 per cent over July numbers) and 58,600 having part-time jobs (up 1.0 per cent over July numbers).

Nationally, the unemployment rate for August stayed steady at 6.1 per cent with about 15,200 jobs created coast-to-coast.

Regionally, Nova Scotia saw its unemployment rate jump by about 1.3 per cent, from July's rate of 6.7 to last month's number of 8.0. Newfoundland & Labrador's unemployment rate increased by 0.5 per cent in August to 13.8 per cent while Prince Edward Island saw it's rate fall by 0.2 per cent to stand at 10.4 per cent Newfoundland & Labrador continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the country while Alberta has the lowest at 3.5 per cent.