{"id":3005,"date":"2025-09-08T16:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3005\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:22:16","slug":"alberta-unemployment-rate-took-big-jump-in-august-now-2nd-highest-among-provinces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3005\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta unemployment rate took big jump in August, now 2nd highest among provinces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The unemployment rate in Alberta increased to 8.4 per cent in August \u2014 that\u2019s up more than half of a percentage point from July\u2019s rate of 7.8 per cent, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/daily-quotidien\/250905\/t003a-eng.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">second-highest unemployment rate among all the provinces.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Only Newfoundland and Labrador had a higher rate last month at 10.7 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Saskatchewan had the lowest jobless rate in the country at 4.7 per cent.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11394548\/canada-jobs-report-august-2025-statistics-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nationally, the unemployment rate increased to 7.1 per cent<\/a> \u2014 its highest level since May 2016, excluding the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>StatCan said most of the jobs lost across the country in August were part-time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the full brunt of the trade war now on the national market,\u201d said Mark Parsons, chief economist with ATB Financial.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat makes Alberta a bit unique is that we are getting an influx of migrants at a rate that other provinces aren\u2019t, so you have a lot of people entering the labour market, looking for work right now in Alberta and that\u2019s putting upward pressure on the unemployment rate and we are seeing it particularly with youth because migrants tend to be young,\u201d added Parsons.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-figure__image\" alt=\"The August unemployment rate of 8.4 per cent in Alberta was the second highest of all the provinces, according to Statistics Canada.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/jobs-map-provinces.jpg&amp;w=12&amp;h=12&amp;crop=1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/jobs-map-provinces.jpg\"   data- data- width=\"679\" height=\"502\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tThe August unemployment rate of 8.4 per cent in Alberta was the second highest of all the provinces, according to Statistics Canada.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy: Statistics Canada\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>In Calgary, <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/daily-quotidien\/250905\/t003a-eng.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">one of four cities in Alberta included in the latest numbers,<\/a> the unemployment rate remained steady at 7.7 per cent, as the number of people in the labour force declined by about 5,300 people.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>In Edmonton, the jobless rate increased from 7.9 per cent in July to 8.5 per cent in August, as the number of jobs available failed to keep pace with an increase in the labour force that added 10,600 people in August.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tThe unemployment rate in the city of Red Deer increased from 5.4 per cent in July to 6.7 per cent in August as the number of people with jobs shrank by 1,500.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The city of Red Deer saw the biggest jump, with the rate spiking from 5.4 per cent in July to 6.7 per cent in August.<\/p>\n<p>In Lethbridge, the unemployment rate climbed a full percentage point from 5.7 in July to 6.7 per cent last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what you\u2019re seeing is really cautious businesses right now \u2013 they don\u2019t\u2019 want to add a lot to payrolls right now \u2013 it\u2019s a very uncertain trade environment, business investment is weak, we\u2019ve seen a reduction in oil prices.\u00a0 So all that\u2019s translating for a pretty weak environment for job creation,\u201d said Parsons.<\/p>\n<p>However, he said there are a couple of factors that could eventually help turn the economy around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good news is that we do eventually expect a trade deal between Canada and the U.S. and that will lead to more certainty and rehiring,\u201d said Parsons.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd also we are hopeful that the federal government is going to start fast tracking major projects \u2013 we desperately need business investment in Canada to improve \u2013 and that\u2019s going to be the turning point that gets the Canadian economy going again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'What does youth unemployment tell us about Canada\u2019s economy?'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/WEB_MN_LJ_VALENCIA_SEPT_5TH.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:59<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat does youth unemployment tell us about Canada\u2019s economy?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unemployment rate in Alberta increased to 8.4 per cent in August \u2014 that\u2019s up more than half&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4084,114,4085,184,85,46,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-3005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-alberta-unemployment","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-canada-unemployment","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}