Each month Statistics Canada releases comprehensive data on the state of Canada’s labour markets.

This page summarizes all of the latest results from that data. It is current to Jan 2020.

Change in Employment, by Province

Displays the change in employment and employment rates by province. One graph for the month-to-month change and another for the year-over-year. The 95 per cent confidence intervals are displayed.

Employment Levels

Displays the change in employment, by province, between Dec 2019 and Jan 2020 and between Jan 2019 and Jan 2020. The margin of error in the data is displayed as bars around the point estimates and reflect the 95% confidence interval.

Prime-Age Employment Rates

And the same changes in terms of employment rates (employment-to-population ratios) for those in their prime working years (25 to 54 years old). This helps abstract from differences in the size of provinces, and adjusted for demongraphic changes (which is increasingly important).

Monthly Changes

Displays the monthly change in employment, for a selected province

Next is a table of all the monthly employment changes for Alberta since 1976.

Alberta employment levels

This displays the levels of employment, unemployment, etc, in Alberta since 2012.

Employment

Employment Rate

Prime-Age Employment Rate

Participation Rate

Unemployment Rate

Comparing Recessions in Alberta

Prime-Age Employment Rates

15 to 64 Years Old Employment Rates

Employment Levels

Change in Employment by Sector

This displays the change in employment by sector, month-to-month and year-over-year.

Unemployment

This is the supplementary unemployment data

Change in Unemployment and Employment Rates, by Age/Sex

This displays the changes in unemployment rates for various age/sex groups in Alberta. It displays the latest unemployment rate, the pre-recession (Oct 2014) rate, and the highest rate during the recession.

Unemployment Rate by Prior Activity

This displays the share of Alberta’s labour force that is unemployed according to the unemployed worker’s prior activity.

Change in Full- and Part-time Employment

Displays the change in full and part time employment since October 2014 (the start of the recession).

Next, here is the share of total employment that is full-time.

Duration of Unemployment

Displays the average number of weeks of unemployment.

Since 2012

Long Series

Long-Term Unemployment Share

Number Unemployed, by Spell

Calgary and Edmonton, and all cities

Public vs Private Employment in Alberta

This displays the change in public, private, and self-employment in Alberta since the recession began in October 2014. Note that public employment includes all orders of government, and also includes crown corporations, local school boards, hospitals, etc. Overall, since the recession started in October 2014, public employment is up 77.2 thousand, private employment is down 42.3 thousand, and self-employment is down 6 thousand.

The following graph displays the changes from Oct 2014 to Jan 2020.

Self Employment Changes

Hours Worked per Week

The average hours worked per week.

Demographics

This displays the change in a province’s employment level, relative to the change that would be necessary to “keep up” with population growth and change.

The current “employment gap” is -85 thousand, down from the largest gap during the recession of -100 thousand. The employment gap by age bins is displayed next.

Provincial Comparisons

Employment Rates

Unemployment Rates

Participation Rates

Finding and Separation Rates

This plots the probability of finding and losing a job, following Shimer (2009).

Earnings

Average weekly earnings, year-over-year growth.

Labour Market Indicator

This displays the Bank of Canada ‘Labour Market Indicator’. It is a composite of various monthly data, including unemployment rates, underemployment rates, hours worked, earnings growth, the finding and separation rates.

LFS Maps

The following are labour market characteristics for the various Statistics Canada economic regions.

By Education

 

Created by Trevor Tombe

ttombe@ucalgary.ca