Alberta sheds another 18,000 jobs in November

Kenney blames Ottawa as energy sector struggles despite corporate tax breaks

Alberta’s employment doldrums deepened in November, as the economy lost 18,000 jobs and the unemployment rate nudged upwards.

A University of Calgary economist said it’s the worst single-month employment pummeling the province has endured since the oil price crash five years ago.

“And it’s the second-largest monthly drop on record,” said Trevor Tombe.

The jobless rate grew by 0.5 points to 7.2 per cent, joining B.C. and Quebec as the only provinces where the rate increased, according to Statistics Canada.

But in Calgary, the unemployment rate dipped slightly, from 7.2 per cent in October to 6.9 per cent last month.

The national jobless rate edged up by 0.4 points to 5.9 per cent, with employment losses in Alberta accounting for a quarter of the national total.

It was telling, particularly for Alberta, that the second-steepest

year-over-year drop in employment, at 7.2 per cent, hit the natural resources sector.

Those numbers come at a time when Alberta-based energy companies continue to axe jobs despite benefiting from UCP government corporate tax breaks.

The latest statistics come as no surprise to workers at the Calgary Food Bank who are serving more clients than ever, about 14,000 people a month, said spokeswoman Shawna Ogston.

“We know year-over-year we’re up another 15 per cent ... every year is higher and we haven’t even seen a plateau,” she said.

The Statistics Canada report cited joblessness among men aged 25 to 54 was up for the second straight month, while those numbers for women aged 55 and over were also up.

Ogston said the food bank is seeing more individuals showing up for hampers — a 43 per cent increase over last year — and a 40 per cent jump in first-time clients.

“We used to expect a lot of those people to be one-timers, but now we see individuals coming in two or three times at least — they’re running out of resources, savings,

employment insurance, credit,” she said.

Job losses in Calgary, she noted, are coming in a wide variety of sectors including retail, wholesale, energy and the public sector.

In a tweet, the University of Calgary’s Tombe said Alberta has 60,000 fewer jobs than it had five years ago, when energy prices crashed.

“Over the past year, employment has remained roughly flat but population kept growing,” he said.

And male unemployment, he said, makes up virtually all of that gap and is “as about as bad as the worst point in the recession.”

The Opposition NDP pounced on the numbers, repeating the argument that the Kenney government’s election campaign promises to ignite the economy, partly through a major corporate tax break, have failed dismally.

And the party laid thousands of recent job loss announcements in the health-care and education sectors at the feet of the government’s recent budget.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate to see so many Albertans lose their jobs before the holidays,” said Deron Bilous, NDP critic for Economic

Development, Trade and Tourism.

“The UCP’S risky experiment to hand over billions of dollars to corporations has failed Albertans. All we’ve seen are companies taking their corporate tax gift and creating jobs in Wisconsin.”

Premier Jason Kenney said it’s “always disturbing to hear of any job losses,” adding he never expected what he called a recessionary economy he inherited to quickly turn around.

And he pointed the finger at the Trudeau government for policies that strangle the province’s energy industry.

“I hope Prime Minister Trudeau and his government will take this as an urgent reminder to focus on economic growth and job creation,” said Kenney, who noted job losses were occurring across the country.

He said recently announced increases in future oil-by-pipeline shipments and a $250-million investment announcement by energy giant Canadian Natural Resources bode well for job and economic growth.