The unemployment rate in the London-St. Thomas area fell in August.
But it's hardly cause for celebration.
The unemployment rate for the London-St. Thomas census metropolitan area was 5.4% in August, down from 5.6% in July. But according to seasonally adjusted figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday morning, the drop was largely the result of a drastic decrease in the size of the local labour force. Over 6,000 people left the labour force last month and the number of people working fell by 5,300.
While the unemployment rate dropped, so did the employment rate. According to Statistics Canada, the local employment rate fell to 56.4% from July's 57.7%.
Nationally, the unemployment rate fell to 6.2% as 22,200 net new jobs were created. A loss of 88,100 full-time jobs was off-set by a gain of 110,400 part-time jobs.
