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Unemployment rate for the Oshawa area ticks upward

More people were out of work in the Oshawa area for the third straight month.

According to new numbers from Statistics Canada, the Oshawa census metropolitan area, which also includes Whitby and Clarington, had an unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent in April, up from 6.0 per cent in March. This amounts to 200 more people not working, bringing the total to 13,400.

The unemployment rate has been ticking up since the start of 2017, when it sat at 5.1 per cent, or about 11,800 people out of work.

However, these numbers are about the same as they were a year ago, when the unemployment rate was 6.0 per cent.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate hit its lowest mark since October 2008, coming to 6.5 per cent. Statistics Canada attributes the decline to fewer youth searching for work. Compared to April 2016, there are 1.5 per cent, or 276,000, more people employed, with the unemployment rate dropping 0.6 per cent in that time.

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