The monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a powerful tool for tracking change in the job market. But, like all sample surveys, its reliability suffers the more you zero-in on specific parts of the sample. This is why we tend to focus on the national and provincial results rather than specific communities or regions.

To get around this, we can look at change over a larger block of time, which is what we do in today’s Twenty-Four with regard to the seven regions* of Alberta for which Statistics Canada provides LFS results.

Averaging the LFS results over the first seven months of the year, we find that the unemployment rate is lower in the regions outside the Edmonton and Calgary areas. The Camrose-Drumheller region had the lowest rate at 5.8% compared to 7.5% in the Edmonton region and 7.6% in the Calgary region. 

Why are unemployment rates higher in Calgary and Edmonton? The main factor is these regions have experienced particularly fast population and labour force growth since 2022. Jobs have risen, but the number of people entering these markets and looking for work has shot up even faster. For example, so far this year, employment in Calgary has risen an impressive 4.7%, but the labour force has grown at a faster clip of 5.1%. The result has been an increase in that region’s unemployment rate.   

How have regional labour markets fared over time? A natural baseline is 2019, before the pandemic was declared. The regions with year-to-date employment gains since 2019 are Camrose-Drumheller (+20.0%), Calgary (+18.4%), Edmonton (+9.5%), Lethbridge-Medicine Hat (+8.4%) and Red Deer (+8.0%), while Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake (-1.6%) and the West (-1.4%) posted declines.

*There are eight economic regions in Alberta:

• Lethbridge-Medicine Hat
• Camrose-Drumheller
• Calgary
• Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House
• Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River
• Red Deer
• Edmonton
• Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake

Statistics Canada combines Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River together in its LFS results. We refer to this region as the West.

A map of each region can be viewed here.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The Port of Churchill officially opened in 1931.

Today’s trivia question: Cold Lake is one of the deepest lakes in Alberta. What is its maximum depth?