NB省失业率达到9.6%

[B]Unemployment figure higher in 2010 than when Liberal government took power in 2006[/B]

New Brunswick's unemployment rate edged up close to the 10-per-cent mark in July offering Liberal Leader Shawn Graham some dour economic news with less than three weeks left in the election campaign.

[B]Canada's unemployment rate also inched up in the monthly labour force survey to [COLOR="Red"]8.1 per cent[/COLOR]on Friday. But the Statistics Canada survey showed New Brunswick's jobless rate jumped to [COLOR="red"]9.6 per cent [/COLOR]in August from nine per cent in July.[/B]

Although the unemployment rate surged in the last month, there were other glimmers of good news included in the labour force survey.

The labour force increased to 403,000 from 399,000 last month and the number of employed people grew to 365,000 up from 363,000, so an increase of 2,000 jobs.

In the last year, the job growth has been the most robust in Moncton and the southeast and northeast regions, according to Statistics Canada's three-month rolling average.

Moncton's unemployment rate stood at 5.2 per cent in August 2010 down from 7.6 per cent a year ago. Meanwhile the unemployment rate in the southeast was 6.9 per cent down from 8.5 per cent last year and in the northeast it dropped slightly to 13.8 per cent from 14.1 per cent.

However, Saint John saw a significant increase in unemployment when the rate hit 8.8 per cent up from 5.7 per cent last year.

The jobless rate surged to 8.5 per cent from 5.9 per cent in southwest New Brunswick.

[B]2006 unemployment rate lower[/B]

The August job figures before the Sept. 27 election do not compare favourably to the province's 8.1 per cent unemployment rate in 2006, when the Liberals took power.

In October 2006, the unemployment rate in Moncton stood at 5.8 per cent, in Saint John it was six per cent and in central New Brunswick the rate was 4.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, unemployment was the highest in northeast New Brunswick, which stood at 11.7 per cent.