Alberta Job Opportunities Increase in February 2016

Alberta Sees a Small Growth in Number of Jobs Last Month

Alberta surprisingly saw an increase in the amount of job opportunities available in February of 2016. It was the first time in five months where such a thing had actually happened in the province!

What’s more encouraging is that there was gain in full-time work positions (more than + 10,000), although that growth was somewhat offset by the decrease in part-time positions (- 8,500 in the red).

While these statistics are relatively encouraging, they don’t necessarily show the full scope of the job market in Alberta.

More Alberta related statistics:

• 10,000 jobs were lost in January 2016, with an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent

• 20,000 jobs were lost all of last year (2015) in all industries

• 40,000 total job losses in the energy sector since soil prices have been down

• 7.9 percent unemployment is the highest recorded in Alberta since February of 1996

• Largest shock has been in energy-producing regions (Alberta oil sands)

• Secondary effects from drop in oil sands investment is rippling through to other industries and provinces

The unemployment rate actually grew by 0.5 over January 2016, increasing the overall unemployment level to the highest it has been in more than two decades – at 7.9 percent.

It may seem strange that this figure grew considering that jobs were added last month but makes sense because the amount of able workers also increased and even by a greater amount (just over + 14,000). Unfortunately there were just not enough jobs for everyone.

To clarify, the labour force refers to all people over the age of 15 who are either currently working or searching for work. It’s likely that Alberta’s current economic condition has forced more people into looking for a job possibly to help offset the loss of employment of a family member or loved one.

Two of the hardest hit sectors – energy and manufacturing – have continued to see job losses, and both generally have higher paying jobs than in other industries.

*Sourced from ATB Financial, Statistics Canada

More Canadian Economics

Are you interested in other things economically related to Calgary, Alberta and Western Canada as a whole? If so, we invite you to see our collection of Canadian Economic Articles today!