Alberta fares better as Canada faces tough job losses

Alberta may lead Canada in creating new jobs, but some in the province are still having a hard time finding work.

While Canada faced the biggest job losses in decades last month, outside the pandemic, Alberta is leading all provinces in year-over-year job growth.

“Alberta is weathering the trade storm better than most and you’re seeing that come through in the jobs data,” said Mark Parsons chief economist with ATB.

The national unemployment rate increased to 6.7 per cent last month after Canada lost nearly 84,000 jobs, led by declines in Quebec and British Columbia and jobs lost in service and manufacturing heavily impacted by American tariffs.

While steel, lumber and automobile exports face steep tariffs, oil and gas does not.

Alberta’s unemployment rate was already lower than Canada’s and dropped slightly to 6.3 per cent.

Calgary’s unemployment rate is 6.6 per cent.

“Energy and oil and gas and utilities.. we are still seeing jobs being created, albeit a lot of them are contracts. That gives employers flexibility to navigate the ebbs and flows of their headcount,” said Christina Schultz, the recruitment manager with About Staffing.

Adding to stress

Amid economic uncertainty, there has been a decline in full-time jobs often adding to the stress for job seekers.

“If you are a gig worker you are not getting benefits, it just keeps stretching Canadians and Albertans more and more to the edge of their budgets,” said Stacy Yanchuk, CEO of Alberta non-profit Money Mentors.

Groups like hers offer free sessions to help people organize their finances.

As war in the Middle East adds new economic uncertainty, experts think Alberta’s job growth, paired with cooling population growth, will keep chipping away at the unemployment rate.

“Overall we see a continuation of the trend where Alberta will continue to out-perform the current environment,” said Parsons.

But that doesn’t mean finding work is easy.

Calgary’s Karly Marshall has been working to find a job since November.

It’s been nothing like four years ago when she got the first position she applied for.

“I’ve applied for about 60 jobs right now. I’ve probably heard back from three so I’m very surprised about the job market,” she said.

She says she has been applying for jobs she knows she is qualified for with her background in logistics and customer service but has rarely even been contacted.

She hopes adding a new reference letter from her former manager will help her land a job soon.

“I excel at customer service. I’m pretty confident that I’ll land something… but I just want to make sure that my resume is getting looked at and I don’t know if that’s happening.”

Staffing agencies say amid economic uncertainty employers are often cautious about hiring which can mean job seekers are waiting longer than usual to find work.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen a continuation of an extended period of time for the job seeker to secure something and employers through their interview processed being a little more gun-shy and not ready to pull the trigger even when quality candidates are right in front of them,” said Schultz who added that some people are waiting about six months to find a suitable job.

Next week the Bank of Canada is expected to re-evaluate its key lending rate and Parsons predicts the bank will hold steady, taking a cautious approach due to uncertainty surrounding trade and war in the Middle East.