Barrie went from having the lowest unemployment rates in the country just a few months ago to one of the highest in February.

According to new numbers released by Statistics Canada, Barrie’s unemployment rate in February was 6.9 per cent. That’s up from 4.8 per cent in January.

Barrie tied for the third highest rate last month with Saskatoon and Edmonton. St. John’s had the highest rate with 8.5 per cent, followed by Calgary with 7.9 per cent.

But Barrie’s unemployment rate was once the lowest in the country. In December it was 3.4 per cent.

Mayor Jeff Lehman says the numbers may be a little skewed. He says Statistics Canada only polls about 200 people in the city.

“Unfortunately when you're only polling that number of people, if you get a slightly higher number one month, it's going push those numbers up,” he says.

For him and city officials, they’re more focused on the long term.

“What we want to know is whether there are more jobs in Barrie year after year.”

The Canadian economy added 15,400 net new jobs last month and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 per cent -- but the gains were due to a surge in part-time work that offset a decline in full-time positions.

Statistics Canada's latest labour force survey also says the job gains in February were driven by an increase of 50,300 public-sector jobs.

Compared with 12 months earlier, the overall job market added 282,500 positions for an increase of 1.5 per cent -- and all of that year-over-year growth came from full-time work.

For February, the report also found that average hourly wage growth, which has been scrutinized by the Bank of Canada ahead of interest-rate decisions, stayed solid at 3.1 per cent.

Last month's job growth, while small enough to be statistically insignificant, represents an improvement over the January report that showed a drop of 88,000 positions for the labour force's steepest one-month drop in nine years.

The February numbers nudged the unemployment rate down to 5.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent in January.

With files from The Canadian Press.