Alta. jobless rate continues to rise

Lethbridge rate secondlowest in province

Southern Alberta’s job market should be heating up these days, with a warm spring and plenty of construction. But the employment picture darkened last month, with the official jobless rate here pegged at 6.6 per cent — a disappointing 1.5 points above last year’s rate, according to Statistics Canada.

But the February number, up from 5.8 per cent in January, remained secondlowest in the province. Elsewhere in Alberta, the 6.6 per cent figure compares with 8.5 per cent in Calgary and a dismal 9.3 per cent in Fort McMurray.

Although the employment market is improving in British Columbia, the national unemployment rate for February was pegged at 7.3 per cent, compared with 6.9 per cent a year ago. For the first time in 30 years Alberta — at 7.9 per cent — trailed Quebec, Ontario and the other western provinces.

Treasury Board president Scott Brison, commenting on the latest figures, underlined the importance of economic diversification for avoid similar shocks in the years ahead. But although an estimated 14,100 “net new positions” were created in B.C., Stats Can said the jobless rate there remained unchanged at 6.6 per cent — the same as the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region.

Elsewhere in Alberta, the Drumheller-Camrose area boasted the lowest unemployment number, 6.3 per cent, while Edmonton rose to 6.8, Grande Prairie to 7.9 and Red Deer to 8.3 per cent.

Alberta Labour officials reported about 1,500 new jobs were filled in February, while about 2,500 people moved from part-time to full-time status. But the number of people looking for work grew by about 14,100, bumping the jobless rate.

At the same time, they added, the unemployment rate among indigenous people living off-reserve climbed to 16.7 per cent last month, up from closer to 10 per cent a year ago. Nationally, StatsCan pegged the rate at 13.1 per cent.

Forestry, fishing and mining employment fell, along with energy-sector positions, while construction, real estate, scientific and technical services were among those adding personnel in Alberta.

Commenting on Alberta’s situation, BMO chief economist Doug Porter pointed out the province’s unemployment rate is the highest outside of Atlantic Canada, which he labelled “an extremely rare situation.”

“Historically, Quebec has been a have-not province and Alberta’s very much been the have province,” Porter said in an interview.

“And the fact that we’ve got the classic, large have-not province with a lower unemployment rate than the traditional have province, I think is quite telling and basically speaks to the dramatic turnabout we’ve had in Canada, just the last year alone.”

He noted the last time Alberta’s rate was higher than Quebec’s also followed a crash in oil prices, when the price of oil fell from US$30 a barrel to $10 in about six months.

Across Canada, the labour market lost 2,300 net jobs in February compared with the previous month, though the agency deemed that figure statistically insignificant.