AB gained 24K FT jobs in Nov but still below Aug levels

The federal government released their November 2023 job numbers last week, and job numbers are up in Alberta.

The net increase to jobs between last month and October was 8,900.

Among workers 25 years of age and older, women workers saw the larger job increases between October and November. There were 5,200 more women over 25 at work last month compared to September. That number jumps to 6,900, however, if you include those who are 15–24 years old.

On the other hand, 1,100 more men over 25 were employed in November over the previous month—but that increases slightly to 2,000 if you include the younger group.

Statistics Canada provided no data on non-binary workers.

Here’s how Alberta’s new jobs compare to the other provinces:

	Oct 2023	Nov 2023	Change	% change
BC	2,810,300	2,819,300	9,000	0.32%
AB	2,487,000	2,495,900	8,900	0.36%
ON	7,945,900	7,952,400	6,500	0.08%
NB	388,800	391,200	2,400	0.62%
SK	601,700	603,200	1,500	0.25%
MB	701,300	702,500	1,200	0.17%
NS	503,000	502,300	-700	-0.14%
NL	236,300	235,400	-900	-0.38%
PEI	92,300	91,000	-1,300	-1.41%
QC	4,521,100	4,519,600	-1,500	-0.03%

Alberta saw the second largest increase of any province, superseded only by British Columbia, which saw an additional 9,000 than they had in October. Alberta’s increase amounted to more than 0.36% of its total workforce.

Québec saw the largest decrease in new jobs, with 1,500 fewer people working last month than in October. New Brunswick saw the largest percentage increase: 0.62%.

In Alberta, 7 job sectors saw job gains for September (with construction seeing the highest gains: 15,700).

The other 9 remaining sectors reported by Statistics Canada saw job losses in Alberta:

Wholesale and retail trade	-7,100
Accomodation and food services	-4,400
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing	-3,200
Educational services	-3,000
Transportation and warehousing	-2,100
Other services (except public administration)	-1,600
Manufacturing	-1,200
Agriculture	-1,000
Business, building and other support services	-400

Combined, these 2 industries lost over 24,000 jobs.

Compared to a year ago, the industry with the highest job gains was “Construction”. “Other services” saw the largest decrease over the last year.

	Nov 2022	Nov 2023	Change	% change
Construction	230,900	251,900	21,000	9.09%
Health care and social assistance	312,900	330,300	17,400	5.56%
Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas	130,600	147,300	16,700	12.79%
Manufacturing	134,100	150,300	16,200	12.08%
Transportation and warehousing	133,600	149,600	16,000	11.98%
Business, building and other support services	72,200	79,800	7,600	10.53%
Information, culture and recreation	78,400	85,600	7,200	9.18%
Public administration	112,000	118,100	6,100	5.45%
Accommodation and food services	130,100	135,800	5,700	4.38%
Wholesale and retail trade	363,500	366,100	2,600	0.72%
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing	125,600	127,900	2,300	1.83%
Utilities	20,700	21,300	600	2.90%
Agriculture	44,300	42,800	-1,500	-3.39%
Professional, scientific and technical services	237,600	231,800	-5,800	-2.44%
Educational services	164,900	159,100	-5,800	-3.52%
Other services (except public administration)	105,800	98,200	-7,600	-7.18%

The report from Statistics Canada also shows that Alberta’s private sector grew by 8,100 between October and November; however, there were 76,000 more private-sector jobs than this time last year. Public sector jobs were up by 5,900 over October but higher than November 2022 by 28,500. Self employed jobs were down by 5,000 over October and down by 5,600 over November 2022.

Full-time jobs made up all of the job gains last month. Alberta lost 14,800 part-time jobs (seasonally adjusted) between October and November, but they gained 23,600 full-time jobs.

Keep in mind that Alberta lost 62,600 full-time jobs just two months before, the largest loss in full-time jobs since April 2020, one month into the COVID-19 pandemic. Combine last month’s gain of 23,600 with the gain of 31,500 in October, and we’re still short 7,500 of the full-time jobs we had in August.

There were 10,200 men full-time workers who got new jobs last month. By comparison, the number of women who worked full-time increased by only 13,300 during the same period.

In June 2019, the month before the Job Creation Tax Cut came into effect, there were 1,886,700 people working full-time. Last month, there were 2,062,600. That means that there are 175,900 more full-time jobs than there were before the UCP cut the tax on corporate profits.

While more full-time jobs does seem like a good thing, let’s take a look at how much of a percentage of total jobs are full-time jobs. In June 2019, full-time jobs made up 82.50% of all jobs in the province.

Last month, they were at 82.64%, meaning that in the nearly 4.5 years since the UCP government introduced the so-called Job Creation Tax Cut, the percentage of Alberta workers being employed in full-time positions has increased only marginally.

Even though more people are working full-time now than in June 2019, there are more people working overall. Which means that full-time job growth has just barely kept up with population growth.

Speaking of full-time jobs, wages for full-time workers in Alberta increased by 67¢, from an average of $$37.11 an hour in October.

Part-time wages, on the other hand, increased from $24.90 an hour in October to $25.31 in November. The average wage for both full-time and part-time jobs combined increased by 66¢, from $35.03 an hour to $35.69 an hour.

Alberta is tied with BC for the second highest average full-time hourly wage, behind Ontario.

ON	$37.92
BC	$37.78
AB	$37.78
QC	$35.06
SK	$33.86
NL	$32.83
MB	$31.56
NS	$31.20
NB	$30.99
PEI	$30.51

We also had the second highest average hourly wage for part-time workers, behind only BC.

BC	$26.72
AB	$25.31
NL	$23.45
ON	$23.37
QC	$23.22
SK	$22.50
MB	$22.20
PEI	$22.13
NS	$21.81
NB	$21.69

By industry, wages increased in 11 of the 16 reported sectors.

	Oct 2023	Nov 2023	Change
Public administration	$46.19	$48.80	$2.61
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing	$43.04	$45.56	$2.52
Information, culture and recreation	$28.67	$30.47	$1.80
Utilities	$52.01	$53.36	$1.35
Transportation and warehousing	$34.05	$35.31	$1.26
Accommodation and food services	$18.70	$19.87	$1.17
Professional, scientific and technical services	$45.56	$46.71	$1.15
Manufacturing	$35.05	$35.92	$0.87
Other services (except public administration)	$29.25	$29.94	$0.69
Wholesale and retail trade	$26.35	$26.82	$0.47
Health care and social assistance	$34.26	$34.46	$0.20
Construction	$37.90	$37.47	-$0.43
Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas	$51.50	$50.90	-$0.60
Educational services	$37.19	$36.18	-$1.01
Business, building and other support services	$26.88	$25.82	-$1.06
Agriculture	$25.54	$22.51	-$3.03

When we compare wage growth of all the provinces over the previous month, Alberta had the second highest change in wages among all provinces.

Alberta saw its unemployment rate increase slightly to 5.9% 5.8% last month, up from 5.8% in September. This is the highest it’s been since July, when it was 6.1%, and the second highest since April.

Alberta’s labour force also increased last month by 14,400, so, if you have 14,400 more people available to work than in October, but only 8,900 more people actually working, then it’s not surprising that the unemployment rate increased.

As far as how it compares with the rest of the country, Alberta’s unemployment rate was the fifth lowest. Alberta’s unemployment rate was higher than just 4 other provinces: Manitoba (4.9%), Saskatchewan (5.1%), Québec (5.2%), and British Columbia (5.3%).

For months, Alberta had the distinction of having the highest unemployment outside of Atlantic Canada. That now falls to Ontario, with a jobless rate of 6.1%. We’ll need more than four months to see whether this is an anomaly or the beginning of an upward trend, especially since Ontario’s unemployment dropped last month.

As far as change in unemployment rate, four of the provinces—New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia—saw decreases. Everyone else saw an increase. Well, Newfoundland and Labrador actually remained the same.

That being said, Alberta’s unemployment rate in November 2022 was 5.7%, which means that with all the ups and downs in its unemployment rate over the last year, the percentage of the labour force in Alberta that remains without a job has actually increased.

To be fair, most provinces had a higher unemployment rate last month than they had the year before. Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick were the only ones who saw a decrease. Of those provinces with a higher unemployment rate, Alberta saw the lowest increase since November 2022.

Canada saw an increase in employment last month, with jobs across the country rising by 24,900. BC saw the largest share of those jobs (9,000), followed closely by Alberta (8,900). Ontario took up third place (6,500).

The national unemployment rate sat at 5.8%, up from 5.7% in October and 5.1% last November.