“If you’re breathing, Canada’s West wants you,” an economist with CIBC World Markets said after release of the latest employment figures Friday.

British Columbia’s jobless rate dipped to 4.6 percent and Alberta’s fell to a 30-year low of 3 percent in October, thanks to the booming energy industry. B.C.’s rate could fall below 4 percent in the next year, an economist said. Meanwhile Canada’s national rate was 6.2 percent, due to industrial downsizing in eastern provinces. In the U.S., the nationwide rate fell to a five-year low of 4.4 percent.