Alberta jobless rate hits near 22-year high, ahead of Nova Scotia for first time

Statistics Canada says Alberta’s monthly unemployment rate has hit its highest level in nearly 22 years and it’s the first time the province has a worse jobless rate than Nova Scotia.

The federal agency reports that Alberta’s unemployment rate rose to 8.6 per cent last month — the highest since September 1994.

It’s also above the 8.4 per cent unemployment rate in Nova Scotia, marking the first time Alberta has had a higher unemployment rate than that province since Statistics Canada started collecting the data in 1976.

BMO chief economist Doug Porter says the unemployment picture in Alberta may even be worse than known because the latest data did not fully capture Fort McMurray due to the ongoing fallout from the wildfires in May.

In Calgary, the oil and gas capital of Canada, the unemployment rate of 8.6 per cent was the worst among 33 Canadian metropolitan areas surveyed.

Edmonton’s unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent was the sixth highest.

Alberta has lost 49,000 jobs compared to July of 2015 when the jobless rate was 6.2 per cent.

Economist Todd Hirsch of ATB Financial said that although Alberta shed jobs for the fourth consecutive month, the number was "negligible" and the increase in the unemployment rate was really caused by 17,600 more people entering the workforce. Statistics Canada reported the province lost 10,600 full−time jobs and gained 9,100 part−time jobs in July compared with June.

A TD Bank report released last month estimates Alberta’s economy will contract by 6.5 per cent over 2015 and 2016, making the economic downturn deeper than any going back to the early 1980s.