Alberta employment figures sustained by ‘momentum’

CALGARY • Despite a projected $8-billion drop in capital spending among oil companies, and amid fears of widespread layoffs, employment levels in Canada’s two largest petroleum producing provinces aren’t showing the effect of the collapse in oil prices.

However, industry experts said Friday that announced layoffs at oil and gas companies could still take their toll on employment levels in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Data released Friday by Statistics Canada show that the country added a surprising 35,400 new jobs in January amid gains in part-time positions and the national unemployment rate fell to 6.6% from 6.7% in the month.

Similarly, Alberta added 14,000 new jobs in a month when major employers such as Suncor Energy Inc. and Ceno- vus Energy Inc. announced reductions to their workforces and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers forecast a 33% drop in spending by oil and gas companies.

BMO Capital Markets chief economist Doug Porter said in a note to clients that Alberta’s job growth and declining unemployment rate won’t last and shows “how much underlying momentum Alberta had around the turn of the year heading into the steep oil price drop.”

Cameron McGillivray, president and chief executive of Enform, which acquired the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada in 2013, said Friday the StatsCan numbers are volatile and may not show the effects of energy industry staff reductions at this point.

“In many cases, companies are reviewing their plans,” Mr. McGillivray said, and large corporations may not have identified exactly which positions to cut.

For example, a spokesperson for Suncor, Canada’s largest integrated energy company, confirmed Thursday that the company has not identified all of the positions that will be cut in an effort to reduce the company’s workforce by 1,000 people.

Besides Suncor, many other oil and gas producers and energy services firms have announced layoffs of both permanent staff and contractors. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors forecast as many as 23,000 jobs could be lost as the number of active drilling rigs falls.

ATB Financial chief economist Todd Hirsch said in a note that “a deeper dive into the data reveals that the energy market is, indeed, seeing a slowdown” despite the betterthan-expected labour force numbers.

Alberta and Saskatchewan shed 1,000 jobs each in the natural resource sector over January, which includes the oil and gas, forestry and mining subsectors.

Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate rose marginally in January to 4.5% as the secondlargest oil and gas producing province shed 8,400 jobs, although most of those positions were in agriculture and in a category called professional, scientific and technical services.

“It would be too soon to tell, but because oil prices are so low right now, this could be indicative of a trend,” University of Saskatchewan labour economist Kelly Foley said.