As reported in Friday’s edition of The Owl, we are about halfway back to where we were before the pandemic when it comes to the number of jobs* in Alberta.

The improvement was spread across the economy with the number of jobs increasing in 13 of 16 major sectors in July.

The three sectors that shed jobs were public administration (-1 per cent); finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-2 per cent); and business, building and other support services (-5 per cent).

The need to catch-up to pre-pandemic levels remains a concern with 14 sectors still below where they were before the pandemic sent the economy reeling.

Only the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sector (+3 per cent) and the business, building and other support services sector (+1 per cent) were employing more people in July than in February.

Despite adding 33,900 jobs since April, the accommodation and food services sector remains the hardest hit, down 45,400 (-29 per cent) in July versus February.

The manufacturing sector is next on the list in percentage terms, with its employment off by 13 per cent (-18,000 jobs), but the wholesale and retail sector is next in terms of the absolute number of positions yet to come back (-27,200 or 8 per cent of the sector’s pre-pandemic workforce).

*All data in today’s Owl have been adjusted to account for seasonal variation.