THE NORTHWEST jobless rate edged up in July compared to June but the number of people working actually increased.
Figures released by Statistics Canada today point to a July jobless rate of 7.7 per cent, slightly larger than June’s 7 per cent.
But that’s because more people in July considered themselves part of the workforce than in June whether they were actually working or not.
The number of people who were over the age of 15 who declared themselves part of the workforce whether working or not stood at 48,000 in the northwest in July, an increase over the 47,400 figure for June.
And 44,300 people were working in July compared to 44,100 in June.
At the same time, the number of people who said they were jobless in July stood at 3,700 and that’s 400 more than in June.
These figures are taken from interviews of people from the North Coast to just this side of Vanderhoof. They are not figures of those collecting Employment Insurance.
The July 2011 is an improvement over the July 2010 jobless rate of 11.9 per cent.
The provincial jobless rate stood at 7.3 per cent in July, a slight decrease from June’s 7.4 per cent.
The number of people working in July stood at 2,295.3 million, more than June’s 2,280.1 million.