The federal government released their January 2024 job numbers last week, and job numbers are up in Alberta.
The net increase to jobs between last month and December was 10,100.
Among workers 25 years of age and older, women workers saw the larger job increases between December and January. There were 7,800 more women over 25 at work last month compared to December. That number jumps to 9,100, however, if you include those who are 15–24 years old.
On the other hand, 1,000 fewer men over 25 were employed in January over the previous month—but that changes to a gain of 1,200 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:
| Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ON | 7,913,900 | 7,937,700 | 23,800 | 0.30% |
| AB | 2,502,600 | 2,512,700 | 10,100 | 0.40% |
| NL | 238,000 | 245,500 | 7,500 | 3.15% |
| MB | 703,100 | 710,000 | 6,900 | 0.98% |
| NS | 507,900 | 511,600 | 3,700 | 0.73% |
| NB | 390,800 | 392,100 | 1,300 | 0.33% |
| PEI | 91,900 | 92,000 | 100 | 0.11% |
| BC | 2,837,900 | 2,835,300 | -2,600 | -0.09% |
| SK | 607,000 | 600,800 | -6,200 | -1.02% |
| QC | 4,531,900 | 4,524,400 | -7,500 | -0.17% |
Alberta saw the second largest increase of any province—up from third largest in December—superseded only by Ontario, which saw an additional 23,800 jobs than they had in December.
Québec saw the largest decrease in new jobs, with 7,500 fewer people working last month than in December. Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest percentage increase: 3.15%.
In Alberta, 9 job sectors saw job gains for January, with “transportation and warehousing” seeing the highest gains: 10,000.
Of 7 remaining sectors reported by Statistics Canada, all of them saw job losses in Alberta:
| Construction | -7,700 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | -5,400 |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | -3,600 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | -2,500 |
| Agriculture | -2,200 |
| Manufacturing | -1,800 |
| Business, building and other support services | -1,400 |
Combined, these 7 industries lost over 24,600 jobs.
Compared to a year ago, the industry with the highest job gains was “transportation and warehousing”. “Professional, scientific and technical services” saw the largest decrease over the last year.
| Jan 2023 | Jan 2024 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transportation and warehousing | 132,900 | 154,700 | 21,800 | 16.40% |
| Health care and social assistance | 312,800 | 330,000 | 17,200 | 5.50% |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | 131,300 | 145,500 | 14,200 | 10.81% |
| Accommodation and food services | 125,800 | 139,600 | 13,800 | 10.97% |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | 126,300 | 134,900 | 8,600 | 6.81% |
| Information, culture and recreation | 80,400 | 88,500 | 8,100 | 10.07% |
| Business, building and other support services | 72,700 | 80,600 | 7,900 | 10.87% |
| Public administration | 115,800 | 121,200 | 5,400 | 4.66% |
| Other services (except public administration) | 99,800 | 105,100 | 5,300 | 5.31% |
| Manufacturing | 138,800 | 142,600 | 3,800 | 2.74% |
| Utilities | 20,000 | 23,100 | 3,100 | 15.50% |
| Educational services | 167,700 | 169,800 | 2,100 | 1.25% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 366,100 | 367,200 | 1,100 | 0.30% |
| Construction | 238,200 | 238,900 | 700 | 0.29% |
| Agriculture | 48,900 | 38,700 | -10,200 | -20.86% |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 250,500 | 232,400 | -18,100 | -7.23% |
The report from Statistics Canada also shows that Alberta’s private sector shrunk by 9,400 between December and January; however, there were 66,900 more private-sector jobs than this time last year. Public sector jobs were up by 11,300 over December but higher than January 2023 by 29,600. Self employed jobs were up by 8,300 over December but down by 11,700 over January 2023.
Full-time jobs made up all of the job gains last month. Alberta lost 13,600 part-time jobs (seasonally adjusted) between December and January, but they gained 23,800 full-time jobs; however that wasn’t enough to recover from the 28,700 full-time jobs they lost between November and December.
Keep in mind that Alberta lost 62,600 full-time jobs in September, 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—and now last month—we are still short 9,500 of the full-time jobs we had in August.
There were 11,300 men full-time workers who gained jobs last month. By comparison, the number of women who worked full-time increased by 12,400 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 2,064,200. That means that there are 177,500 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 81.78%, 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 were a handful of times during 2023 when this number passed 82.5%, but it was always only marginally and came 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 decreased by 29¢, from an average of $38.05 an hour in December. This is also lower than where it sat in November.
Part-time wages, on the other hand, increased from $24.84 an hour in December to $24.88 in January; although that is still lower than where it was in November. The average wage for both full-time and part-time jobs combined decreased by 23¢, from $35.67 an hour to $35.44 an hour.
Alberta had the third highest average full-time hourly wage in January 2024, behind Ontario and British Columbia.
| ON | $38.53 |
| BC | $38.53 |
| AB | $37.76 |
| QC | $35.55 |
| SK | $34.22 |
| NL | $33.72 |
| MB | $32.15 |
| NS | $31.83 |
| NB | $31.74 |
| PEI | $30.22 |
This marks 5 months in a row that Alberta hasn’t had the highest average hourly wage for full-time workers.
We had the second highest average hourly wage for part-time workers, behind only BC; although Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador are closing in on us.
| BC | $26.69 |
| AB | $24.88 |
| ON | $24.64 |
| NL | $24.33 |
| QC | $23.21 |
| SK | $22.38 |
| NB | $22.13 |
| NS | $21.54 |
| MB | $21.23 |
| PEI | $20.74 |
By industry, wages increased in 6 of the 16 reported sectors.
| Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business, building and other support services | $26.19 | $27.90 | $1.71 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $47.80 | $48.82 | $1.02 |
| Construction | $38.81 | $39.83 | $1.02 |
| Information, culture and recreation | $26.31 | $27.22 | $0.91 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | $26.51 | $26.72 | $0.21 |
| Educational services | $36.28 | $36.44 | $0.16 |
| Agriculture | $23.86 | $23.74 | -$0.12 |
| Other services (except public administration) | $30.03 | $29.84 | -$0.19 |
| Accommodation and food services | $20.08 | $19.80 | -$0.28 |
| Manufacturing | $36.04 | $35.59 | -$0.45 |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | $43.61 | $42.80 | -$0.81 |
| Transportation and warehousing | $33.30 | $32.40 | -$0.90 |
| Health care and social assistance | $35.23 | $33.93 | -$1.30 |
| Public administration | $47.28 | $45.73 | -$1.55 |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | $51.36 | $49.76 | -$1.60 |
| Utilities | $55.95 | $50.68 | -$5.27 |
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 decrease slightly to 6.2% last month, down from just 6.3% in December and but still up from 5.9% we saw in November and October and 5.8% in September.
Alberta’s labour force also increased last month by 9,500, so, if you have 9,500 more people available to work than in November, but 10,100 more people actually working, then it’s not surprising that the unemployment rate decreased.
As far as how it compares with the rest of the country, Alberta’s unemployment rate was the fifth highest. Alberta’s unemployment rate was tied with Ontario and lower than just 3 other provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador (10.2%), Prince Edward Island (7.4%), Nova Scotia (7.0%), 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 has been tied with Ontario for the last two months, 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, 8 of the provinces saw decreases. Only New Brunswick and Nova Scotia saw an increase.
That being said, Alberta’s unemployment rate in January 2023 was 6.0%, 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. PEI, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and New Brunswick were the only ones who saw a decrease. Of those provinces with a lower unemployment rate, Alberta saw the smallest increase since January 2024.
Canada saw an increase in employment last month, with jobs across the country rising by only 37,300. Ontario saw the largest share of those jobs (23,800), followed by Alberta (10,100), Newfoundland and Labrador (7,500), and Manitoba (6,900).
The national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.7%, although it was up from 5.0% last January.
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