Friday’s edition of The Owl looked at changes in Alberta’s total employment in September. Today,’s Owl breaks down the results by industry.

Most sub-sectors managed to add jobs in September, but there were four exceptions. Adjusting for seasonal variation, the professional, scientific and technical services sub-sector shed 5,000 jobs in September (-3 per cent).

The business, building and other support services sub-sector lost 1,600 jobs (-2 per cent) as did health care and social assistance (-1 per cent).

The bounce back in the accommodation and food services sub-sector that took place in May, June and July appears to have plateaued with 1,500 positions lost in September (-1 per cent) after a gain of just 3,100 in August (+3 per cent).

Across the 16 major sub-sectors, accommodation and food services jobs remain down by the most compared to their pre-shock level. There were 43,800 fewer jobs in the sub-sector in September than in February (-28 per cent).

Only three sub-sectors are ahead of where they were in February. The finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sub-sector added the most jobs (3,800 or 4 per cent of the sub-sector’s total number of positions).

The other two sectors that were above their pre-pandemic level were the utilities sub-sector (800 positions or 4 per cent) and the information, culture and recreation sub-sector (1,900 or 2 per cent).

Overall, the number of jobs in the province was down by 125,900 (-5 per cent) in September compared to February.