“Our nation-leading employment rate has increased to 64.2 per cent while unemployment has dropped to its lowest rate since before the pandemic,” says Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation Doug Schweitzer about the December 2021 Labour Force Survey.
For unemployment rates, the government divides Alberta into seven regions. Western Alberta includes the Lesser Slave Lake region. It’s a short form for the Banff – Jasper – Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca – Grande Prairie – Peace River employment region. It starts at the Alberta border with the U.S. and follows the Rocky Mountains north. North of Edmonton, it goes east to include half of northern Alberta.
In western Alberta, the December 2021 unemployment rate was much better than a year earlier. In December 2021, the unemployment rate in western Alberta was 6.4 per cent, says the Labour Force Survey. In December 2020, it was 9.7 per cent.
In December 2021, western Alberta was second best [6.4 per cent]. The lowest [best] rate was Red Deer [6.1 per cent]. Most of Alberta was in the six per cent range, except Camrose – Drumheller [8.8] and Calgary [7.6].
A year earlier, in 2020, western Alberta was also ranked fairly high [9.7] with the third best rate after Wood Buffalo – Cold Lake [8.5] and Red Deer [9.5].