By Angela Gemmill

For the fifth month in a row Sudbury’s unemployment rate rose, which means more residents were looking for work.

The December jobless figures were released today by Statistics Canada.

In Sudbury, our unemployment rate was at 8.4%, compared to 8.2% the month before.

It hasn’t been this high since May 2011, when it also sat at 8.4%.

Nationally, 22,800 jobs were added to the economy last month, which kept the unemployment rate across Canada at 7.1%.