Alberta unemployment rate highest in Edmonton and Calgary
Lots of job seekers in the cities to blame for unemployment rates higher than provincial average
Alberta unemployment numbers higher in Edmonton and Calgary - photo courtesy bigskyline.com
With Alberta’s economy back in the groove, it’s a job bonanza for a lot of people – employment is at a record high. Still, the potential job opportunities are not uniform across the province for job seekers.
Surprisingly, the highest rate of unemployment in Alberta is in Edmonton where about 5.4 per cent of the labour force is currently looking for work. That’s still well below the 7.6 per cent national rate of unemployment. (Because of the small number of samples in the regional survey, these figures are based on a three-month moving average and are not adjusted for seasonality).
The second-highest rate of unemployment is Alberta’s other large city: Calgary, where the rate was slightly better (5.2 per cent) but still above the provincial average.
On the other hand, the lowest rate of unemployment is in the Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House region, where only 3.4 per cent of the labour force is in the job hunt. The largely rural region of Camrose-Drumheller also had a very low rate (4 per cent).
It may seem counter intuitive that the booming economies of Edmonton and Calgary have the highest rates of unemployment. But when a worker is out of a job, he or she may perceive the best opportunities are in the largest cities. That may in fact be true since there are simply more industries, more companies, and more employers looking for a broader set of skills than in a very small town. This leads the job-seekers to the bigger cities, which pushes the rate of unemployment above the provincial average.
Category: Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Lloydminster, Red Deer
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