According to the latest Labour Force Survey results, Alberta’s accommodation and food services sector has the most ground to make up with regard to jobs lost since the onset of the pandemic.

The seasonally adjusted results for November,* show that employment in the accommodation and food services sector was 28.3 per cent lower than in February before the pandemic was declared. This works out to 44,300 positions.

Second on the list is the agriculture sector with its employment down by 20.7 per cent in November compared to February (-10,300 jobs).

Jobs in the business, building and other support services sector and manufacturing jobs were also still down by double digits at 18.9 per cent (-14,000) and 11.6 per cent (-15,900), respectively.

Five out of the 16 major sub-sectors had made up the ground lost since February with employment in the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sector up by the most at 11.1 per cent or 11,800 positions.

Utilities (1.8 per cent), transportation and warehousing (1.6 per cent), forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas (0.7 per cent), and health care and social assistance (0.5 per cent) were also above where they were before the pandemic.

Across all sectors, employment in November was down by 4.9 per cent or 113,300 compared to February.

*The survey reflects labour market conditions during the week of November 8 to 14 before new public health restrictions were introduced in Alberta at the end of the month.

ANSWER to Friday's trivia question: Which industry employs the most Albertans? Wholesale and retail trade jobs form the largest slice of the employment pie at 15% of the provincial total. However, if wholesale and retail jobs are considered separately, the largest employer in Alberta is the health care and social assistance sector at 14% of the total.

Today’s question: Which province had the highest participation rate in November? (The participation rate is the number of labour force participants (a.k.a. those working and those actively looking for work) expressed as a percentage of the population 15 years of age and over.