New Brunswick's jobless rate jumps to 10.4%
New Brunswick’s jobless rate jumped to 10.4 per cent in February as the provincial economy shed 2,200 jobs, according to Statistics Canada.
The monthly labour force report, which was released on Friday, showed the unemployment rate increased from 10 per cent in January.
New Brunswick lost 2,200 jobs last month, but 2,100 of those were full-time jobs, according to Statistics Canada. There were also fewer people in the labour force.
The highest levels of unemployment remain in northeastern New Brunswick.
The Campbellton-Miramichi region had a jobless rate of 19.5 per cent, which was well above the Edmundston-Woodstock region, which posted a 11.6 per cent unemployment rate.
By comparison, Saint John-St. Stephen and Fredericton-Oromocto both had 8.8 per cent unemployment rates. Moncton-Richibucto had the lowest rate in the province at 8.6 per cent.
Looking across the region, New Brunswick has the second highest unemployment rate in Atlantic Canada.
Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest rate at 12.6 per cent, compared to 10.1 per cent in Prince Edward Island and 9.1 per cent in Nova Scotia.
Erin McGrath-Gaudet, the director of intergovernmental policy for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the jobless numbers for New Brunswick were not surprising.
"There is always concern about the state of the economy. There is no secret that New Brunswick has been struggling," she said.
The organization, which represents small- and medium-sized businesses, said there may be some good news on the horizon in terms of hiring.
"Our numbers suggest there will be a bit of an uptick over the next three months," she said in terms of new jobs in the province.
But McGrath-Gaudet said it was too early to tell whether the new hires could replace all of the jobs that have been lost.
New Brunswick is not the only province that lost jobs in February.
The national jobless rate increased to 6.8 per cent from 6.6 per cent in January.
Canada's economy actually added 34,000 full-time jobs during the month, but that figure was more than offset by a loss of almost 35,000 part-time jobs.
