The federal government released their December 2023 job numbers last week, and job numbers are up in Alberta.
The net increase to jobs between last month and November was 6,500.
Among workers 25 years of age and older, men workers saw the larger job increases between November and December. There were 2,800 more men over 25 at work last month compared to September. That number jumps to 6,800, however, if you include those who are 15–24 years old.
On the other hand, 1,000 more women over 25 were employed in November over the previous month—but that drops to a loss of 100 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:
| Nov 2023 | Dec 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC | 2,819,300 | 2,837,000 | 17,700 | 0.63% |
| QC | 4,519,600 | 4,529,400 | 9,800 | 0.22% |
| AB | 2,495,900 | 2,502,600 | 6,700 | 0.27% |
| NS | 502,300 | 508,600 | 6,300 | 1.25% |
| SK | 603,200 | 608,000 | 4,800 | 0.80% |
| NL | 235,400 | 237,800 | 2,400 | 1.02% |
| MB | 702,500 | 702,800 | 300 | 0.04% |
| PEI | 91,000 | 91,100 | 100 | 0.11% |
| NB | 391,200 | 390,900 | -300 | -0.08% |
| ON | 7,952,400 | 7,904,400 | -48,000 | -0.60% |
Alberta saw the third largest increase of any province—down from second largest in November—superseded only by British Columbia and Québec, which saw an additional 17,700 and 9,800, respectfully, than they had in November.
Ontario saw the largest decrease in new jobs, with 48,000 fewer people working last month than in November. Nova Scotia saw the largest percentage increase: 1.254%.
In Alberta, 7 job sectors saw job gains for September (with “other services (except public administration)” seeing the highest gains: 6,900.
Of 9 remaining sectors reported by Statistics Canada, 2 saw no change in jobs and 7 saw job losses in Alberta:
| Manufacturing | -6,000 |
| Construction | -4,900 |
| Agriculture | -2,900 |
| Transportation and warehousing | -2,100 |
| Public administration | -1,000 |
| Health care and social assistance | -800 |
| Utilities | -500 |
Combined, these 7 industries lost over 18,200 jobs.
Compared to a year ago, the industry with the highest job gains was “health care and social assistance”. “Agriculture” saw the largest decrease over the last year.
| Dec 2022 | Dec 2023 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 308,900 | 329,500 | 20,600 | 6.67% |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | 128,400 | 148,100 | 19,700 | 15.34% |
| Construction | 234,600 | 247,000 | 12,400 | 5.29% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 358,700 | 369,700 | 11,000 | 3.07% |
| Accommodation and food services | 126,900 | 135,800 | 8,900 | 7.01% |
| Manufacturing | 135,700 | 144,300 | 8,600 | 6.34% |
| Business, building and other support services | 74,700 | 81,900 | 7,200 | 9.64% |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | 123,800 | 128,500 | 4,700 | 3.80% |
| Public administration | 112,800 | 117,100 | 4,300 | 3.81% |
| Utilities | 16,700 | 20,800 | 4,100 | 24.55% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 143,600 | 147,500 | 3,900 | 2.72% |
| Information, culture and recreation | 82,600 | 85,600 | 3,000 | 3.63% |
| Other services (except public administration) | 104,700 | 105,100 | 400 | 0.38% |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 241,200 | 237,900 | -3,300 | -1.37% |
| Educational services | 168,500 | 163,900 | -4,600 | -2.73% |
| Agriculture | 47,200 | 39,900 | -7,300 | -15.47% |
The report from Statistics Canada also shows that Alberta’s private sector grew by 10,900 between November and December; however, there were 301,900 more private-sector jobs than this time last year. Public sector jobs were up by 6,800 over November but higher than December 2022 by 150,500. Self employed jobs were down by 17,600 over November and down by 22,200 over December 2022.
Part-time jobs made up all of the job gains last month. Alberta gained 35,600 part-time jobs (seasonally adjusted) between November and December, but they lost 28,700 full-time jobs, completely wiping out the 23,600 full-time jobs they gained between October and November.
Keep in mind that Alberta lost 62,600 full-time jobs just three months before, the largest loss in full-time jobs since April 2020, one month into the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though we gained 23,600 full-time jobs in November and 31,500 in October, we were still short 7,500 of the full-time jobs we had in August. This new loss brings us to 36,200 fewer full-time jobs than August’s numbers.
There were 11,700 men full-time workers who lost jobs last month. By comparison, the number of women who worked full-time decreased by 1,900 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 2,033,900. That means that there are 147,200 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 81.27%, 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 decreased. There have been a handful of times during 2023 when this number passed 82.5%, but it’s always been only marginally and comes right back down the following month.
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 hasn’t kept up with population growth.
Speaking of full-time jobs, wages for full-time workers in Alberta increased by 27¢, from an average of $3778 an hour in November.
Part-time wages, on the other hand, decreased from $25.31 an hour in November to $24.84 in December. The average wage for both full-time and part-time jobs combined decreased by 2¢, from $35.69 an hour to $35.67 an hour.
Alberta has the second highest average full-time hourly wage, behind Ontario.
| ON | $38.12 |
| AB | $38.05 |
| BC | $37.57 |
| QC | $35.29 |
| SK | $34.39 |
| NL | $33.22 |
| MB | $31.95 |
| NS | $31.39 |
| NB | $31.26 |
| PEI | $30.24 |
This marks 4 months in a row that Alberta hasn’t had the highest average hourly wage for full-time workers.
We also had the second highest average hourly wage for part-time workers, behind only BC.
| BC | $27.37 |
| AB | $24.84 |
| ON | $23.74 |
| QC | $23.40 |
| NL | $22.55 |
| SK | $22.22 |
| PEI | $21.93 |
| MB | $21.91 |
| NB | $21.79 |
| NS | $20.92 |
By industry, wages increased in 11 of the 16 reported sectors.
| Nov 2023 | Dec 2023 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utilities | $53.36 | $55.95 | $2.59 |
| Agriculture | $22.51 | $23.86 | $1.35 |
| Construction | $37.47 | $38.81 | $1.34 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $46.71 | $47.80 | $1.09 |
| Health care and social assistance | $34.46 | $35.23 | $0.77 |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | $50.90 | $51.36 | $0.46 |
| Business, building and other support services | $25.82 | $26.19 | $0.37 |
| Accommodation and food services | $19.87 | $20.08 | $0.21 |
| Manufacturing | $35.92 | $36.04 | $0.12 |
| Educational services | $36.18 | $36.28 | $0.10 |
| Other services (except public administration) | $29.94 | $30.03 | $0.09 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | $26.82 | $26.51 | -$0.31 |
| Public administration | $48.80 | $47.28 | -$1.52 |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | $45.56 | $43.61 | -$1.95 |
| Transportation and warehousing | $35.31 | $33.30 | -$2.01 |
| Information, culture and recreation | $30.47 | $26.31 | -$4.16 |
When we compare wage growth of all the provinces over the previous month, Alberta was 1 of just 3 provinces that saw a reduction in average overall hourly wage.
Alberta saw its unemployment rate increase slightly to 6.3% 5.9% last month, and up from 5.8% in September and October. This is the highest it’s been in nearly two years, since it was 6.4% in February 2022.
Alberta’s labour force also increased last month by 17,200, so, if you have 17,200 more people available to work than in November, but only 6,700 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 fourth highest. Alberta’s unemployment rate was tied with Ontario and lower than just 3 other provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador (10.7%), Prince Edward Island (8.1%), and New Brunswick (6.6%).
For months, Alberta had the distinction of having the highest unemployment outside of Atlantic Canada. However, for the 4 months leading up to December, that fell to Ontario. Now that Alberta is tied with Ontario and shares that distinction, we’ll see if this is an anomaly or whether Alberta is on its way to taking it back from Ontario. Only time will tell.
As far as change in unemployment rate, 4 of the provinces—Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Québec, and Manitoba—saw decreases. Everyone else saw an increase.
That being said, Alberta’s unemployment rate in December 2022 was 5.6%, 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. Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were the only ones who saw a decrease. Of those provinces with a higher unemployment rate, Alberta saw the fourth highest increase since December 2022.
Canada saw an increase in employment last month, with jobs across the country rising by only 100. BC saw the largest share of those jobs (17,700), followed by Québec (9,800) and Alberta (6,700).
The national unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%, although it was up from 5.0% last December.
