The Canadian unemployment rate – with and without Alberta’s Boom ...

• Main Author: Kneebone, Ronald D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The School of Public Policy Publications 2014
• Subjects: Newfoundland; Canada; British Columbia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/sppp.v7i0.42490; https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/sppp/article/view/42490

Over the past two decades there has occurred a shift in economic power from central Canada to other parts of the country. Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador have both claimed a noticeably larger share of Canada’s GDP since 1995 but easily the largest shift of economic output has been to Alberta. This adjustment in the Canadian economy is most easily observed in the large migration between provinces of Canadians seeking employment. Data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey shows that over the period 1995-2014 Alberta has maintained an average annual rate of growth in employment of 2.50 per cent. This is well above the 1.44 percentage rate of employment growth in second-place Ontario and double the average rate of growth in neighbouring British Columbia. This begs the question: What would Canada’s unemployment rate be today if Alberta’s job creation boom hadn’t happened? Since the national jobless rate is a weighted average of the provincial figures, getting an answer is straightforward. Assume ... : The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol 7 (2014) ...