Alberta jobless rate 4th highest in Canada

The federal government released their December 2022 job numbers last week, and job numbers are up in Alberta.

The net increase to jobs between last month and November was 24,500. That follows a decrease of 15,100 in total jobs the previous month.

Among workers 25 years of age and older, men workers saw the larger job increases between November and December. There were 14,400 more men over 25 back at work last month compared to November. That number jumps to 19,000 if you include those who are 15–24 years old.

On the other hand, only 500 more women over 25 were employed in December over the previous month—but that changes to 5,500 more women 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 2022	Dec 2022	Change	% change
ON	7,701,600	7,743,700	42,100	0.55%
AB	2,364,100	2,388,600	24,500	1.04%
BC	2,748,400	2,765,000	16,600	0.60%
MB	669,300	676,300	7,000	1.05%
NL	229,100	235,800	6,700	2.92%
SK	576,800	581,000	4,200	0.73%
QC	4,436,400	4,439,000	2,600	0.06%
NS	482,500	483,200	700	0.15%
PEI	84,700	85,100	400	0.47%
NB	373,500	372,500	-1,000	-0.27%

Alberta saw the second largest increase in total jobs, behind only Ontario. However, their increase, relative to the number of employed workers in November, was actually the third largest, behind Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Manitoba.

In Alberta, 10 job sectors saw job gains for November (with construction seeing the highest gains: 12,500).

The 6 remaining sectors reported by Statistics Canada saw job losses in Alberta:

• Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas (-6,600)
• Wholesale and retail trade (-6,400)
• Utilities (-4,400)
• Other services (except public administration) (-2,700)
• Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-1,700)
• Agriculture (-500)

Combined, these 6 industries lost 22,300 jobs.

Compared to a year ago, the industry with the highest job gains was “professional, scientific and technical services”. “Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas” saw the largest decrease over the last year.

	Dec 2021	Dec 2022	Change	% change
Professional, scientific and technical services	196,600	228,900	32,300	16.43%
Information, culture and recreation	68,100	83,100	15,000	22.03%
Manufacturing	118,900	133,100	14,200	11.94%
Agriculture	32,500	44,700	12,200	37.54%
Other services (except public administration)	103,300	110,500	7,200	6.97%
Health care and social assistance	313,400	319,700	6,300	2.01%
Business, building and other support services	70,300	75,000	4,700	6.69%
Accommodation and food services	124,100	128,500	4,400	3.55%
Construction	226,200	229,800	3,600	1.59%
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing	118,200	119,100	900	0.76%
Educational services	164,300	165,100	800	0.49%
Wholesale and retail trade	354,800	354,500	-300	-0.08%
Transportation and warehousing	137,500	135,300	-2,200	-1.60%
Public administration	111,100	108,600	-2,500	-2.25%
Utilities	17,500	14,500	-3,000	-17.14%
Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas	143,000	138,300	-4,700	-3.29%

The report shows that Alberta’s private sector grew by 15,100 between November and December. There were 64,700 more private-sector jobs than this time last year. Public sector jobs were up by 5,600 over November but lower than December 2021 by 12,300. Self employed jobs were up by 3,900 over November but up by 36,400 over December 2021.

Full-time jobs made up all of the job gains last month. Alberta gained 41,200 full-time jobs (seasonally adjusted) between November and December, but they lost 4,900 part-time jobs.

There were 17,900 women full-time workers who gained jobs last month. By comparison, the number of men who worked full-time shrunk by 23,300 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 1,961,900. That means that there are 75,200 more full-time jobs than there were before the UCP cut the tax on corporate profits.

That being said, full-time jobs still make up a smaller percentage of total jobs now than they did before the Job Creation Tax Cut. In June 2019, full-time jobs made up 82.5% of all jobs in the province. Last month, they were at 82.1%.

While we technically have more full-time jobs than we did 3 years ago, those jobs haven’t kept up with population growth, which means more people are working part-time jobs, relative to the number of people employed in Alberta.

Speaking of full-time jobs, wages for full-time workers were up 3¢ last month, from an average of $35.58 an hour in November. This marks 5 months of wage increases in Alberta, but they’re still lower than they were in April, when they sat at $35.86.

Part-time wages increased from $23.05 an hour in November to $23.26 in December.

The average wage for both full-time and part-time jobs increased to $33.50 an hour last month from $33.41 in November.

By industry, wages increased in 10 of the 16 reported sectors. However, the following sectors saw wage decreases:

	Nov 2022	Dec 2022	Change
Transportation & warehousing	$33.71	$32.97	-$0.74
Information, culture & recreation	$30.35	$29.89	-$0.46
Fin., ins., real estate, rental, leasing	$35.75	$35.36	-$0.39
Health care & social assistance	$33.11	$32.76	-$0.35
Educational services	$35.72	$35.53	-$0.19
Other services (except pub. admin.)	$27.70	$27.69	-$0.01

When we compare wage growth of all the provinces over the previous month, Alberta saw the fourth largest increase in wages, coming behind only Saskatchewan, Québec, and Nova Scotia.

Alberta’s wage increase was also larger than the change in the national average wage increase, which decreased by 5¢ an hour.

	Nov 2022	Dec 2022	Change
SK	$30.42	$31.10	$0.68
QC	$31.26	$31.41	$0.15
NS	$27.34	$27.48	$0.14
AB	$33.41	$33.50	$0.09
NB	$28.15	$28.21	$0.06
PEI	$27.77	$27.70	-$0.07
ON	$33.02	$32.84	-$0.18
NL	$29.88	$29.67	-$0.21
BC	$32.79	$32.57	-$0.22
MB	$28.82	$28.54	-$0.28

Despite the addition of nearly 25,000 new jobs to its economy, Alberta saw its unemployment rate remain at 5.8% last month, which is where it sat in November.

That’s because Alberta’s labour force also increased by nearly 25,000, which means all the new jobs were swallowed up by the new workers. Even then, there were 200 new people in the labour force who didn’t end up with a job.

The participation rate was relatively unchanged, increasing slightly from 68.6% to 69.1%.

As far as how it compares with the rest of the country, Alberta’s unemployment rate is fourth highest. It was surpassed by 3 of the Atlantic provinces: Alberta’s unemployment rate was lower than just 3 other provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador (10.1%), New Brunswick (8.1%), and Nova Scotia (6.7%). Alberta’s neighbours—BC and Saskatchewan—are at 4.2% and 4.1%, respectively. Québec had the lowest unemployment rate, at 4.0%, nearly two full percentage points lower than Alberta’s.

Canada saw an increase in employment last month, with jobs across the country jumping up by 104,000, the bulk of which occurred in Ontario, which increased by 42,100. Alberta’s gain of 24,500 jobs was the second largest increase of all the provinces. New Brunswick was the only other province that saw job decreases last month, with jobs dropping by 300.

The national unemployment rate sat at 5.0%, down slightly from November’s 5.1%.