Newfoundland and Labrador’s unemployment rate is still the highest in the country, but other provinces are catching up.
Nationally, the rate was 13.7 per cent in May while in this province the rate jumped from 16.0 per cent to 16.3.
Other provinces experienced a much sharper increase in the number of jobless, including PEI where unemployment rose by three per cent.
The rate in Alberta, one of three oil-producing provinces, is now at 15.5, less than a percentage point better than Newfoundland and Labrador. The gap, at times, has been closer to ten percentage points.