The federal government released their September 2024 job numbers yesterday, and job numbers are down in Alberta.
The net decrease to jobs between last month and August was 7,600. Keep in mind that we lost 20,400 jobs between April and May, and gained all but 100 of those back by August, which puts us still 7,700 jobs short from where we were in April.
Among workers 25 years of age and older, women saw the largest increase between August and August. There were 3,400 more women over 25 at work last month compared to August. Those numbers drop just to 2,000 if you include those who are 15–24 years old.
For men, however, 8,800 fewer saw work compared to those working in July. When you add in the younger cohort, it worsens to 9,500 fewer. Men who were 25 years old or older also lost jobs in August, and when we add the two months together, these men have lost over 11,000 jobs.
Statistics Canada provided no data on non-binary or intersex workers.
Here’s how Alberta’s job numbers compare to the other provinces:
| Aug 2024 | Sep 2024 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ON | 8,068,800 | 8,112,000 | 43,200 | 0.54% |
| QC | 4,520,200 | 4,541,900 | 21,700 | 0.48% |
| MB | 713,200 | 718,300 | 5,100 | 0.72% |
| NS | 513,100 | 516,100 | 3,000 | 0.58% |
| SK | 608,000 | 610,300 | 2,300 | 0.38% |
| PEI | 92,600 | 93,200 | 600 | 0.65% |
| NL | 241,200 | 241,600 | 400 | 0.17% |
| NB | 402,200 | 398,100 | -4,100 | -1.02% |
| AB | 2,537,400 | 2,529,800 | -7,600 | -0.30% |
| BC | 2,839,000 | 2,821,000 | -18,000 | -0.63% |
Ontario saw the largest increase in jobs among all the provinces, with over 43,000 jobs added. Québec was in second place.
Alberta, on the other hand, saw the second largest decrease, coming in behind British Columbia, which lost 18,000 jobs.
We rise slightly to third-from-last place, however, when we look at the new jobs as a percentage of August’s job numbers.
Just 7 of the industries in Alberta actually saw an increase in jobs in June. Of those, “wholesale and retail trade” had the highest gains: 8,600.
Of the 9 remaining sectors reported by Statistics Canada, all of them saw job losses in Alberta, with the educational services sector losing over 18,000 jobs:
| Educational services | -18,100 |
| Information, culture and recreation | -10,300 |
| Accomodation and food services | -3,700 |
| Manufacturing | -2,600 |
| Construction | -2,500 |
| Other services (except public administration) | -1,400 |
| Utilities | -1,300 |
| Agriculture | -400 |
| Transportation and warehousing | -400 |
Combined, these 10 industries lost over 40,000 jobs.
Compared to a year ago, the industry with the highest job gains was “public administration”, increasing by nearly 21,000 new jobs, a jump of %.
The “agriculture” sector saw the largest decrease over the last year, losing nearly 9,000 jobs.
| Sep 2023 | Sep 2024 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public administration | 109,500 | 130,300 | 20,800 | 19.00% |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | 142,000 | 159,800 | 17,800 | 12.54% |
| Health care and social assistance | 330,300 | 342,900 | 12,600 | 3.81% |
| Construction | 231,100 | 241,800 | 10,700 | 4.63% |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | 128,000 | 136,700 | 8,700 | 6.80% |
| Manufacturing | 146,700 | 153,300 | 6,600 | 4.50% |
| Accommodation and food services | 137,500 | 142,400 | 4,900 | 3.56% |
| Other services (except public administration) | 98,700 | 103,300 | 4,600 | 4.66% |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 233,800 | 237,000 | 3,200 | 1.37% |
| Educational services | 161,700 | 162,800 | 1,100 | 0.68% |
| Utilities | 18,400 | 19,000 | 600 | 3.26% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 364,300 | 362,500 | -1,800 | -0.49% |
| Business, building and other support services | 78,600 | 76,700 | -1,900 | -2.42% |
| Information, culture and recreation | 83,500 | 80,700 | -2,800 | -3.35% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 150,000 | 146,800 | -3,200 | -2.13% |
| Agriculture | 42,600 | 33,800 | -8,800 | -20.66% |
The report from Statistics Canada also shows that Alberta’s private sector shrunk by 400 between August and September. However, there were 5,800 more private-sector jobs than this time last year.
Public sector jobs were down by 8000 over August, and Alberta had 100 fewer public sector workers compared to September 2023. Self employed jobs were up by 1,000 over August but down by 5,900 over September 2023.
Part-time jobs dropped last month. Alberta lost 10,800 part-time jobs (seasonally adjusted) between August and September. It gained 3,300 full-time jobs during the same period.
These full-time gains were all women workers (14,800), as 11,600 fewer men were working full-time. The part-time job losses, on the other hand, were all women: 4,100, compared to a gain of 2,000 for men.
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 2,073,500. That means that there are 186,800 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 82.5% of all jobs in the province.
Last month, they were at 81.9%, meaning that in the more than 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 shrunk.
In fact, there were only 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. And only once in 2024 (July) has it passed that mark.
Speaking of full-time jobs, median wages for full-time workers in Alberta increased by 97¢ in September. Keep in mind that it had dropped 84¢ in July and dropped by $1 in June, so with the 98¢ increase in August, we’re still only 11¢ higher than where we were in May.
Part-time wages saw a huge bump, increasng by $1.54. Median hourly wages for part-time workers was at $18.00 in August, down from the $19 it sat at for 7 of the previous 8 months. This is the highest it’s been since last September, when it had hit an even $20.00 an hour.
The median wage for both full-time and part-time jobs increased from $30.86 an hour in August to $31.00 in September.
Alberta had the second highest median full-time hourly wage in September 2024, behind British Columbia.
| BC | $34.86 |
| AB | $34.11 |
| ON | $33.65 |
| QC | $32.00 |
| SK | $31.00 |
| NL | $30.00 |
| NB | $28.26 |
| MB | $28.00 |
| NS | $27.78 |
| PEI | $27.78 |
Alberta hasn’t had a median full-time hourly wage higher than BC at any point in 2024 so far.
As far as the median hourly wage for part-time workers, Alberta was behind BC once again but also behind Québec.
| BC | $22.00 |
| QC | $20.00 |
| AB | $19.54 |
| SK | $19.00 |
| ON | $18.50 |
| NS | $18.00 |
| MB | $17.64 |
| PEI | $17.25 |
| NL | $17.05 |
| NB | $17.00 |
By industry, Alberta wages increased in 9 of the 16 reported sectors. They remained unchanged in 3, and decreased in all the rest.
| Aug 2024 | Sep 2024 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Educational services | $31.73 | $35.00 | $3.27 |
| Information, culture and recreation | $21.00 | $24.00 | $3.00 |
| Other services (except public administration) | $24.28 | $27.00 | $2.72 |
| Business, building and other support services | $23.00 | $25.00 | $2.00 |
| Construction | $35.00 | $36.54 | $1.54 |
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | $37.00 | $37.50 | $0.50 |
| Public administration | $43.56 | $44.00 | $0.44 |
| Agriculture | $25.64 | $26.00 | $0.36 |
| Utilities | $48.98 | $49.00 | $0.02 |
| Manufacturing | $30.00 | $30.00 | $0.00 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | $22.00 | $22.00 | $0.00 |
| Accommodation and food services | $17.00 | $17.00 | $0.00 |
| Transportation and warehousing | $32.50 | $32.16 | -$0.34 |
| Health care and social assistance | $30.00 | $29.35 | -$0.65 |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | $54.95 | $53.85 | -$1.10 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $40.00 | $38.46 | -$1.54 |
Alberta saw its unemployment rate drop to 7.5% last month, which is down from 7.7% in August. This makes 6 months in a row we’ve been at 7% or above, something we haven’t seen since 2011.
Alberta’s labour force also decreased last month, by 12,000. Despite having 7,600 fewer people actually working, because Alberta also had 12,000 fewer people available to work than in September, our unemployment rate decreased.
As far as how it compares with the rest of the country, Alberta’s unemployment rate was the second highest, behind just Newfoundland and Labrador, which was at 10.0%.
Alberta was 1 of 8 provinces that saw its unemployment rate drop. It was tied with Québec and Ontario for the third largest drop among all provinces.
The rate is up 2 percentage points since September 2023, the largest year-over-year increase in Canada. Even Newfoundland and Labrador increased by only 0.4 points over the last year.
Canada saw an increase in employment last month, with jobs across the country rising by 46,700. Those gains were driven primarily by Ontario (43,200) and Québec (21,700).
The national unemployment rate decreased to 6.5% from 6.6% in September. It was also up from 5.6% last September.
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