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Calgary’s unemployment rate inched higher into the double digits last month with 10.3 per cent of the workforce out of a job, according to Statistics Canada’s latest labour survey.

It’s the second month Calgary’s unemployment rate has hovered above the 10 per cent mark after reaching 10.2 per cent in October, the highest it’s been since November 1993, which was an economic trough for the entire country.

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In recession-hit Alberta, gripped by the worst downturn seen in decades, the number of job seekers increased by 11,000, pushing the province’s unemployment rate up half a point to 9 per cent, its highest rate since July 1994.

Compared to 2015, overall employment in Alberta is down 30,000.

Nationally, the labour market unexpectedly added 10,700 net jobs last month and the unemployment rate slid to 6.8 per cent.

Last month’s data did beat the expectations of a consensus of economists, who had predicted Canada would shed 20,000 positions in November and for the jobless rate to stay at seven per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.

The jobs report says the unemployment rate dropped to 6.8 per cent from seven per cent because fewer people were searching for work.

The agency says there were 41,300 additional paid employee jobs last month, while the number of positions in the less-desirable class of self-employed workers — some of which may have been unpaid — fell by 30,700.