August was a mixed month when it comes to employment by industry in Alberta. On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment grew in 8 out of 16 sub-sectors.

The professional, scientific and technical services sub-sector had a particularly good month, adding 13,000 jobs for month-over-month growth of 7.6 per cent. At the other end of the spectrum was agriculture, which was down by 6,100 positions or 13.6 per cent.

All 16 sub-sectors lost ground between February and April as the lockdown set in with accommodation and food services down the most at 50.6 per cent (79,300).

Ground was made up in all but four sub-sectors between April and August. Despite this, the number of jobs in the province was still down by 164,100 (7.0 per cent) compared to February.

The four sectors that continued to shed jobs between April and August were agriculture (-12.9 per cent); public administration (-6.7 per cent); forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas (-5.9 per cent); and educational services (-1.9 per cent).

By August, only two sub-sectors were ahead of where they were in February. Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing jobs were up by 0.8 per cent in August compared to February. Business, building and other support services positions were up by 0.5 per cent, but remained down by 9.7 per cent compared to 12 months earlier.

As of August, the accommodation and food services sub-sector had the most ground still to make up at 42,300 jobs below its February level (27.0 per cent of its pre-pandemic workforce).