Updated

Updated · Edmonton Journal · Jul 30

Alberta Creates 90,700 Jobs and Nearly 25% of Housing Starts as In-Migration Lifts Pressure

Updated

Updated · Edmonton Journal · Jul 30

Alberta Creates 90,700 Jobs and Nearly 25% of Housing Starts as In-Migration Lifts Pressure

Q: If Alberta created almost all of Canada’s new jobs, why is its unemployment rate still higher than the national average?

Alberta’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average mainly because its labour force is growing even faster than its job count. The province has added far more jobs than any other part of Canada, but it is also attracting a large inflow of newcomers from other provinces and abroad. Many of those people arrive without a job in place and start looking for work immediately. That raises the number of unemployed people even while total employment is rising. Alberta also has an unusually high labour-force participation rate. In June it was 70.2 per cent, well above the national 66.3 per cent. That means a bigger share of working-age residents are either employed or actively seeking work. Provinces with lower participation can post lower unemployment rates partly because fewer people are counted as job seekers. Economists describe this as a higher “break-even” rate for job creation. Alberta needs to create more jobs than other provinces just to keep unemployment steady, because its working-age population and labour force are expanding so quickly. In some other provinces, labour-force growth has been flat or even shrinking, so they need fewer new jobs to keep unemployment lower. So Alberta’s 7 per cent unemployment rate does not point to weak hiring. It reflects a fast-growing province where migration and labour-force growth are outpacing even very strong job creation.

2 articles · Updated · Edmonton Journal · Jul 30

90,700 jobs created this year put Alberta at 93% of Canada’s net job growth, even though the province has only 12% of the population.
A 7.0% unemployment rate still sits above the 6.5% national average because workers and newcomers are arriving faster than employers can absorb them, while Alberta’s 70.2% participation rate is the country’s highest.
Housing shows the same pattern: Alberta accounts for nearly a quarter of national starts, and 2026 is still tracking as its third-best year despite starts running as much as 25% below 2025’s record.
Edmonton and Calgary starts are still rising—up 2.5% and 2.3%—while Ontario and British Columbia have posted urban declines, reinforcing Alberta’s lead in adding homes amid strong population inflows.
Nationally, CMHC expects about 239,000 housing starts in 2026, down roughly 3%, leaving Canada’s broader housing gap unresolved until at least 2034 or 2035.