Alberta’s labour market continues to recover, largely as workers return to jobs lost during the downturn — notably in the non-renewable resource industry, says finance minister Joe Ceci.

"Since mid-2016, we have added over 70,000 full-time jobs, mostly in the private sector. This is all good news and it shows our plan is working."

The finance Minister went on to say "The Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, RBC, and most recently, the Conference Board of Canada are all forecasting that our economy will grow more than four per cent this year. Alberta will lead the country in growth this year and we’re expected to do the same next year."

Using Alberta labour force statistics from November, Alberta's unemployment rate dropped to 7.3%, down from 7.8% in October, and from 9% a year ago.

Wood Buffalo showed dramatic improvements in year over year unemployment, from 8.9% in 2016 to 6.4% this year beating Edmonton & Calgary at 7% and 7.4% in 2017 respectively.

As of October 2017, Alberta had regained 41,000 of the 62,000 jobs across the province that had been lost during the downturn in commodity prices. Around 20,000 of those recovered jobs were in the oil and gas sector.

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