Alberta adds 23,000 jobs as Canada loses 68,000

Alberta added 23,000 jobs in September and its unemployment rate fell to 6.4 per cent, even as employment across Canada dropped by 68,000, Statistics Canada said.

The agency’s Labour Force Survey, released Oct. 9, showed Alberta employment up 0.9 per cent to 2,684,000. That is 76,000 more people working than a year ago, a gain of 2.9 per cent. The provincial jobless rate was down 0.4 percentage points from August and 1.3 points from a year earlier.

The national unemployment rate rose 0.1 points to 6.5 per cent, which put Alberta’s rate slightly below the Canadian average. The survey reference week was Sept. 13 to 19.

Nationally, the losses were concentrated among youth aged 15 to 24, down 48,000, and core-aged women, down 28,000. Employment fell in educational services, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing. Quebec, down 49,000, and British Columbia, down 20,000, accounted for much of the regional drop.

The Alberta government’s own breakdown, released the same day, said the province gained 25,800 full-time jobs and lost 2,700 part-time jobs. It said youth unemployment fell to 12.5 per cent, the lowest since October 2023 and below the national youth rate of 13 per cent.

Joseph Schow, Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy, trade and immigration, said the province “stood apart as a land of opportunity” while Canada lost jobs. He credited “deliberate, business-friendly policies” and said Alberta has gained more than 300,000 jobs since Danielle Smith became premier.

Statistics Canada did not give a reason for the increase in Alberta. Monthly survey estimates can move sharply and are often revised in later releases, so one month’s gain does not on its own show a trend.

The numbers matter for Albertans because the province’s labour market has been a counterweight to weakness elsewhere in the country. West Texas Intermediate oil averaged about $90 a barrel in the weeks before Alberta’s Oct. 1 fuel tax review, according to the provincial government.

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