Barrie no longer has the highest unemployment rate in the country, but the city isn’t far from the top.

According to new numbers released by Statistics Canada on Friday, Barrie recorded a jobless rate of 8.4 per cent in April.

That number is down, but only slightly. In March, the city had an unemployment rate of 8.8 per cent. That was high enough to claim the top spot on Statistics Canada’s unemployment listing.

April’s decrease now puts Barrie in the second highest spot, only behind St. John’s, N.L. However, it’s only 0.2 per cent that separates the two cities. St. John’s April unemployment rate was a steady 8.6 per cent.

Barrie’s jobless numbers have been on a steep incline since December when the city had an unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent, the lowest in the country at the time.

In January that rate increased to 4.8 per cent and then jumped to 6.9 per cent in February.