Alberta’s new employment stats came out and it shows Alberta has hit an unemployment rate of 5.8%, our highest level since 1997 when it hit 5.9%. This number is probably low due to the number of contractors and self employed people who fit between the cracks of the unemployment numbers, but we are still in a far better situation than most other areas of the country.
We lose perspective when we compare our current numbers with anything in the recent past due to the overwhelming growth we have seen in the last several years. To help with our perspective we need to remember our current rate of unemployment is the same as the lowest unemployment number Ontario has seen in the last 20 years, and they were only below 6% once in that time frame. Maybe 5.8 isn’t quite as bad as it looks?
