by Stats Canada says Cape Breton’s unemployment rate was 18.6 percent last month.
That’s a slight increase of eight tenths of a percentage point over May, but it’s 5.1 percentage points higher than the same time last year.
Nationally, Statscan says the economy added nearly a million jobs last month and the jobless rate went down to 12.3% as pandemic restrictions were eased and businesses started re-opening.
The latest national reading follows a record high unemployment rate of 13.7% in May.