The final month of 2018 came with a bump in the unemployment rate for the London area.
According to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada, the jobless rate in the London census metropolitan area, which includes London, St. Thomas, Strathroy and other surrounding communities, was five per cent in December, up from a near-historic low of 4.8 per cent in November.
For the third straight month, the size of the labour force saw declines. In December, the number of people working across the region fell by 1,200 to roughly 252,200.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was unchanged last month, maintaining the 5.6 percent it hit in November. That is the lowest level the jobless rate has been at across the country since Statistics Canada began measuring comparable data in 1976.
Provincially, it fell to 5.4 percent from the previous month's 5.6 percent.
