Miller: Red Deer unemployment down, economy recovering
Winter is undoubtedly here in Red Deer, but there are certainly signs of life in our local economy as more people are getting back to work in the city.
In the past year, unemployment has dropped to an impressive 5.3 per cent, down from 8.1 per cent at this time last year. This is an even stronger performance than the provincial totals, which dropped to 7.8 per cent from 8.6 per cent this time last year. These figures come from the Alberta Labour Force Statistics report for October 2017, released last week.
To say this is good news for us is an understatement. It shows there’s significantly increased confidence in Alberta in general, and specifically right here in Central Alberta.
Of course this has a lot to do with market forces, just like the recession did, but I want to take a moment and say how proud I am that our government didn’t exacerbate the problem with cuts to essential services like education and healthcare. Albertans know they can count on our government to protect public services.