“We see an overall drop in the number of people working, fewer people out looking for work, and I think it just really illustrates how tough it is out there,” he laments. “We were really hoping that we had hit the bottom and I think we’re very, very close to the bottom. I think there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Warkentin feels news like this week’s Federal Court of Appeal decision to overturn challenges of Trans Mountain pipeline expansion offers hope for local employers.

“We’re seeing some oil and gas companies increase their capital expenditure plans and a little more drilling activity,” says Warkentin. “Of course, Red Deer’s prosperity has always been so closely linked to the conventional oil and gas sector. So with those positive signs on the horizon, I think we have reason to become a little more optimistic.”

Edmonton has the highest unemployment rate in the province at 7.9 per cent, with Lethbridge-Medicine Hat having the lowest at 4.5 per cent.

“Southern Alberta definitely has that heavier weighting in the agriculture sector,” notes Warkentin. “Lethbridge, in particular, has always been a little bit more resilient just because of all the ranching, the ag services, the value-added ag processing. So they’ve got a little more diversified economy than ours.”

Mayor Tara Veer says the latest local jobless numbers are deeply concerning.

“This is now among the highest of the unemployment numbers we’ve seen specifically to Red Deer,” she exclaims. “We remain among the highest unemployment in the province, and while the news earlier this week with respect to Trans Mountain is welcome news for our provincial economy and certainly our local economy, obviously it will be a while before we start to see a return specific to Trans Mountain.”

Despite maintaining confidence in the long-term job prospects for the Red Deer region, Veer admits the local economy remains in a deeper and more protracted recession than ever before.

“The particular sectors that are seeing the highest unemployment are with respect to construction and trades,” explains Veer. “That certainly is a consequence of not even having the ability for public sector investment to – at minimum – bring stability to our local and provincial economy. We remain an oil and gas economy, and so until we get energy to market, we won’t necessarily see a return in affiliated parts in other sectors in our economy.”

However, Veer suggests we are seeing some reasons to be optimistic with an uptick in building permit values and RDC’s transition to becoming a university.

Veer says The City of Red Deer is doing what it can to help the local economy.

“In the fall, we adopted probably one of the strongest local interventions in the economy,” she explains. “Some of the new programs that we’ll be doing apply to the economy in general, and some are very much downtown specific.”

“We hope to see some return on that hopefully in 2020 and 2021 as we roll-out new programs and a new response like we’ve never seen before in this city. Necessity really has proven to be the mother of invention.”

Nationally, gains in the manufacturing, construction and agriculture industries added 34,500 jobs to the economy last month as Canada’s unemployment rate dipped to 5.5 per cent from 5.6 in December.