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Nearly 16,000 more Albertans were out of work in January, marking the second month in a row that the province has seen declining job numbers.

The unemployment rate increased to 6.8 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

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The province said the numbers aren’t reflective of the overall trend, citing monthly fluctuations.

“If we take a step back and look at where Alberta was a year ago, we actually added over 37,000 new jobs in the private sector but we know there’s more work to do,” said Ministry of Finance spokesman Mike Brown in a statement.

The province refused to answer questions beyond a statement emailed on Friday.

The hardest hit demographic was young men between the ages of 15 and 24 due to jobs lost during the recession that haven’t returned, said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe.

“This January report was the worst employment rate for that group of Albertans ever on record,” he said, adding less than 55 per cent in that demographic are employed.