A report by Statistics Canada released Friday found that the province of Alberta created a significant number of jobs last month – most of which were fueled by gains in finance, insurance, leasing, and real estate.

The report stated that the province generated a considerable 20,000 full-time jobs last month with most of the growth attributed to the finance, insurance, real estate, and leasing sector, which collectively saw 7,000 jobs created. The wholesale and retail trade sector came in second posting 6,000 new jobs, while manufacturing followed with 5,000.

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“The Alberta economy as a whole is robust; it’s strong, certainly relative to other provinces,” University of Calgary assistant professor of economics Trevor Tombe told Postmedia. “I’d still say it’s the strongest economy in Canada, except it has a pretty big chunk of workers and businesses that are in a very sharp and deep downtime right now.”

Statistics Canada observed in its report that employment in Alberta has been trending upwards since the fall, following a significant decline after oil prices crashed that led to numerous layoffs in early 2015.

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Adding to this, Tombe noted that the province’s current economic indicators (which include earnings, manufacturing, housing construction, oil production and employment) suggested that the province’s recession ended last October.

Alberta’s unemployment rate fell from 8.6% in February to 8.5% last month, the report revealed.

On the other hand, the same report suggested that 63,000 of Albertans have been unemployed for six months or longer.


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