Yesterday, Statistics Canada released updated data on employment and average weekly earnings for each of the provinces. The new seasonally adjusted data was as of May 2022.
I figured I’d take a look to see how the job situation looks in Alberta.
This data is different from the labour force data I reported on for May, in that this specifically reports on workers who are on payroll.
ON | 6,600,687 |
QC | 3,892,945 |
BC | 2,382,597 |
AB | 1,982,021 |
MB | 606,016 |
SK | 487,026 |
NS | 430,310 |
NB | 337,029 |
NL | 214,661 |
PEI | 73,584 |
Unsurprisingly, Alberta had the fourth largest number of payroll employees in Canada. After all, they do have the fourth largest population in general.
In May 2022, there were 1,982,021 payroll employees working in Alberta. The month before, that number was 1,985,468. That’s a 3,447 decrease, the second largest decrease in the country.
Apr 2022 | May 2022 | Change | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
BC | 2,377,541 | 2,382,597 | 5,056 | 0.21% |
NL | 213,579 | 214,661 | 1,082 | 0.51% |
SK | 486,234 | 487,026 | 792 | 0.16% |
PEI | 73,040 | 73,584 | 544 | 0.74% |
NS | 429,874 | 430,310 | 436 | 0.10% |
NB | 337,035 | 337,029 | -6 | 0.00% |
MB | 609,034 | 606,016 | -3,018 | -0.50% |
QC | 3,896,048 | 3,892,945 | -3,103 | -0.08% |
AB | 1,985,468 | 1,982,021 | -3,447 | -0.17% |
ON | 6,633,660 | 6,600,687 | -32,973 | -0.50% |
When we look at the increase as a percentage of April’s job numbers, we see that Alberta still had the second largest decrease; although Ontario and Manitoba were tied for the largest.
However, Alberta had the fourth largest increase when we compare to May 2021, a year earlier and a year after the province first introduced public health protections related to the pandemic.
May 2021 | May 2022 | Change | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
ON | 6,006,139 | 6,600,687 | 594,548 | 9.90% |
QC | 3,638,334 | 3,892,945 | 254,611 | 7.00% |
BC | 2,193,211 | 2,382,597 | 189,386 | 8.64% |
AB | 1,831,549 | 1,982,021 | 150,472 | 8.22% |
NS | 401,652 | 430,310 | 28,658 | 7.14% |
MB | 581,114 | 606,016 | 24,902 | 4.29% |
SK | 463,231 | 487,026 | 23,795 | 5.14% |
NB | 321,623 | 337,029 | 15,406 | 4.79% |
PEI | 67,982 | 73,584 | 5,602 | 8.24% |
NL | 209,208 | 214,661 | 5,453 | 2.61% |
As I said at the outset, this shouldn’t be that surprising, given that we have the fourth largest population in general. Alberta is also in fourth place in terms of percentage change over the last year.
However, things start to look less rosy the further we go back.
For example, check out what job numbers look like when we compare May 2022 to May 2020, two months into the pandemic.
May 2020 | May 2022 | Change | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
ON | 6,006,139 | 6,600,687 | 1,409,453 | 27.15% |
QC | 3,638,334 | 3,892,945 | 838,591 | 27.46% |
BC | 2,193,211 | 2,382,597 | 524,480 | 28.23% |
AB | 1,831,549 | 1,982,021 | 392,094 | 24.66% |
MB | 581,114 | 606,016 | 104,455 | 20.83% |
SK | 463,231 | 487,026 | 86,351 | 21.55% |
NS | 401,652 | 430,310 | 85,739 | 24.88% |
NB | 321,623 | 337,029 | 62,647 | 22.83% |
NL | 209,208 | 214,661 | 42,650 | 24.79% |
PEI | 67,982 | 73,584 | 16,914 | 29.85% |
Alberta has seen the fourth largest increase in total jobs over the last two years, but relative to the number of jobs they had in March 2022, Alberta has seen the fourth worst growth in the country.
And look how bad things are if we go 3 years out, to May 2019, which was the month after the UCP were elected.
May 2019 | May 2022 | Change | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
QC | 3,727,544 | 3,892,945 | 165,401 | 4.44% |
ON | 6,487,610 | 6,600,687 | 113,077 | 1.74% |
BC | 2,276,701 | 2,382,597 | 105,896 | 4.65% |
NB | 320,489 | 337,029 | 16,540 | 5.16% |
NS | 414,547 | 430,310 | 15,763 | 3.80% |
SK | 476,213 | 487,026 | 10,813 | 2.27% |
PEI | 67,110 | 73,584 | 6,474 | 9.65% |
NL | 210,476 | 214,661 | 4,185 | 1.99% |
MB | 604,556 | 606,016 | 1,460 | 0.24% |
AB | 1,995,822 | 1,982,021 | -13,801 | -0.69% |
Alberta has seen the worst job creation record of all 10 Canadian provinces, with nearly 14,000 fewer payroll employees than we had 3 years ago.
No other province saw such a large drop, in total numbers or in percentages.
In fact, we were the only province that saw fewer payroll employees now than we had 3 years ago.
Québec saw an increase in over 165 payroll employees during the same period. BC and Ontario both passed the 100,000 mark. And PEI grew their number of payroll employees by nearly 10%.
Here’s how the jobs in Alberta have changed over the last 3 years, by industry.
May 2019 | May 2022 | Change | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Accommodation and food services | 165,887 | 155,857 | -10,030 | -6.05% |
Educational services | 159,154 | 150,205 | -8,949 | -5.62% |
Other services (except public administration) | 76,900 | 71,632 | -5,268 | -6.85% |
Real estate and rental and leasing | 42,292 | 37,342 | -4,950 | -11.70% |
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services | 95,320 | 90,605 | -4,715 | -4.95% |
Management of companies and enterprises | 21,450 | 17,883 | -3,567 | -16.63% |
Public administration | 112,014 | 108,805 | -3,209 | -2.86% |
Manufacturing | 124,111 | 121,164 | -2,947 | -2.37% |
Arts, entertainment and recreation | 42,122 | 39,986 | -2,136 | -5.07% |
Information and cultural industries | 27,594 | 26,070 | -1,524 | -5.52% |
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction | 98,119 | 96,596 | -1,523 | -1.55% |
Trade | 342,817 | 341,929 | -888 | -0.26% |
Forestry, logging and support | 3,223 | 3,351 | 128 | 3.97% |
Utilities | 13,703 | 15,633 | 1,930 | 14.08% |
Transportation and warehousing | 104,226 | 107,801 | 3,575 | 3.43% |
Finance and insurance | 62,788 | 67,960 | 5,172 | 8.24% |
Construction | 171,560 | 177,092 | 5,532 | 3.22% |
Professional, scientific and technical services | 118,623 | 127,567 | 8,944 | 7.54% |
Health care and social assistance | 218,482 | 230,091 | 11,609 | 5.31% |
Only 7 industries have seen a net increase in payroll employees over the last 3 years. The other 12 all saw losses, the largest of which was in the hospitality sector, which lost over 10,000 payroll employees.
And that’s despite having one of the lowest job vacancy rates in the country.
The job vacancy rate is the number of job vacancies expressed as a percentage of labour demand.
PEI | 7.8 |
QC | 6.4 |
BC | 6.4 |
NB | 5.8 |
ON | 5.4 |
NS | 5.2 |
MB | 5.2 |
AB | 5.2 |
SK | 5.1 |
NL | 4.9 |
And, as you can see from the above table, Alberta had the third lowest job vacancy rate in Canada this past May.
You’d think that a province with such a low vacancy rate wouldn’t have so many jobs still missing.
In fact, according to Statistics Canada, Alberta still has 106,630 payroll employee vacancies. Seems weird that we still have over 27,000 fewer people working than we did 3 years ago.
