OUT OF WORK

Alberta’s labour market continues to struggle as total hours worked hit lowest mark in 30 years,

OTTAWA— As a huge wildfire raged, Alberta’s labour market continued to struggle last month — job losses mounted, the unemployment rate surged and total hours worked hit their lowest mark in 30 years.

Statistics Canada released its first batch of labour data that captures some of the fallout of a blaze that forced production shutdowns in Alberta’s economically critical oilsands region and triggered the evacuation of Fort McMurray.

The report released Friday found that Alberta’s unemployment rate soared from 7.2 per cent to 7.8 per cent in May following the loss of 24,100 jobs across several industries. The biggest drops were seen in the resources and construction sectors.

The survey, taken for the week of May 15 to 21, also said the total number of hours worked in Alberta decreased 5.1 per cent — the largest monthly decline since May 1986.

However, the actual impact of the wildfire on Alberta’s jobs numbers wasn’t entirely clear.

Statistics Canada said it collected survey data last month for the subprovincial area that includes Fort McMurray, but due to the May 3 evacuation it did not gather numbers for the smaller census area that encompasses the city.

When the devastating fire broke out, the provincial economy had already been reeling from the sharp slide in oil prices.

In the 12 months leading up to May, employment in Alberta fell by 53,800 jobs or 2.3 per cent.

“The bigger picture is still going to be relative weakness in the province for some time, even though we’ve seen oil prices come back,” said Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavcic. “I think we’re still in a much slower-growth environment than we’ve been used to in Alberta.”

The story was different nationwide as the headline job numbers beat economists’ expectations.

Across Canada, the labour force survey showed an overall gain of 13,800 jobs in May.

The increase helped push the jobless rate down to 6.9 per cent from 7.1 per cent — its lowest level since last July.

A closer look at the data shows fulltime work rose by 60,500 jobs, while part-time positions slid by 46,800. The number of employee positions in Canada increased in May by 24,800, while self-employed jobs decreased by 11,100.

Overall, national employment in May was up 0.6 per cent compared to 12 months earlier, the report said.