Alberta's labour market continued to grow through August, unemployment rate declines

With an additional 17,700 jobs in August, Alberta's job market continued to grow, outpacing every other province in the country for that month.

In a Statistics Canada report released Friday, numbers show that Alberta saw another increase in employment in August and a decline in the unemployment rate to 5.7 per cent, slightly above the national rate of 5.5 percent.

Job gains in the province were predominantly in the private and self-employed sectors. The goods-producing sector — mainly in construction, manufacturing and natural resources — and the service sector also saw higher employment numbers.

"The employment rate, the share of the population holding a job, rose to 65.8 per cent, suggesting that the employment gains were stronger than the increase in working-age population, absorbing all the newcomers," the report reads.

"Over the past 12 months, the Alberta labour market has outperformed the rest of the country in terms of job gains."

The public sector, however, recorded a loss.

'Good news for Alberta'

All in all, this is good news for Alberta, said Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist with Alberta Central, the central banking facility for the province's credit unions. 

"Employment remains strong and generally the labour market in Alberta is stronger than the rest of Canada," he said.

"The economy, more broadly, is also performing better than the rest of the country."

Job gains across the country were mainly seen in Alberta and B.C. Employment declined in Ontario, with a loss of 9,000 jobs, and in Nova Scotia, with a loss of 3,600 jobs.

Alberta's wage growth, however, is still under-performing in comparison to other provinces — at an increase of 4.5 per cent, year-over-year.

"That under-performing is not new. It has been a long-term trend that we have been seeing since 2015," said St-Arnaud.

"And that's just generally because wage growth has been under-performing the rest of the country for almost a decade."

Over the past three months, Alberta has gained 10,200 jobs each month, on average, says the report.