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Alberta added 23,400 jobs in October, continuing a six-month-long streak as the province recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month’s gains brought the unemployment rate a whole percentage point down from September to 10.7 per cent, Statistics Canada said in its Labour Force Survey released Friday morning.
Jobs were spread across several sectors, including the healthcare, social assistance, transportation and warehouse industries.
Wholesale and retail did particularly well, with Alberta contributing 7,100 of Canada’s 15,000 total last month. This was offset somewhat in the information, culture and recreation industry, which lost 7,200 jobs in Alberta.
Although Alberta has consistently been adding jobs over the past few months, the province continues to be the farthest away from its to pre-COVID levels.
Canada added 84,000 jobs last month, significantly lower than September’s 378,000 gains. The national unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged at 8.9 per cent. The gains in October continue to fill the employment gap caused by the pandemic with hundreds of thousands of jobs yet to be recovered.
