The unemployment rate in western Alberta is three per cent higher than at this point last year. It increased slightly last month to 7.8 per cent in the economic region that houses Grande Prairie, but was 4.8 in July 2015.
Similar trends are being seen across the province and rest of the country. Canada lost 31,000 jobs in July, which is the biggest one month drop in full-time work since 2011. Its jobless rate is 6.9 per cent.
At the same time, the number in Alberta rose to the highest it’s been since 1994 at 8.6 per cent. It was 0.7 percentage points lower a month before.