Alberta’s unemployment up slightly in March, still below national rate

Unemployment in Canada on the rise, Statistics Canada data shows. There's job growth in some Alberta sectors, but some are still struggling to find work.

Unemployment in Alberta saw a slight increase last month, though it remained below the national rate.

Statistics Canada released its March 2026 Labour Force Survey on Friday, which showed Alberta’s jobless rate sitting at 6.5 per cent – up from 6.3 per cent the month prior, but below the national unemployment rate of 6.7 per cent.

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“The national numbers aren’t very good,” said Mark Parsons, chief economist with ATB.  

“We saw a bit of job growth, but we had job losses in the first two months of the year, so we’re still behind where we were – when we started."

Parsons adds that Alberta’s job growth year over year is up four percent.

The highest additions came in the utilities sector at 38.5 percent and in healthcare at just over 18 percent growth.

“Alberta looks quite a bit better, actually,” Parsons said. “You’ve seen divergence and regional labour market conditions where Alberta has really separated itself from the rest of the pack.”

“What we’re looking for is jobs to keep up with the population or exceed the population growth, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now.

“Over the last year, more jobs have been created than people added to the province, and that’s helped lower the unemployment rate to what it is today.”

Only three provinces had lower unemployment than Alberta: Quebec (5.4 per cent), Manitoba (5.6 per cent) and Saskatchewan (five per cent).

“Anybody who was in a job and doing well, they get to continue that,” said Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy, a debt expert and CEO of Money Mentors.

“Anybody who’s looking for work or whose industry is struggling are worried – and they’re stressed and the cost of living is impacting their budgets every single day."

Yanchuk Oleksy says that wages are also not keeping up with job growth, making it harder on Albertans to balance the books.

“Consumers are getting pushed to the edges of their map or their edges of their budget, and if you don’t have any more cash coming in, you have to borrow or you have to cut. And that gets really stressful for a household,” she said.

“When we’re feeling money stress, we feel stupid – and worse, we go into embarrassment and shame. As soon as you get into shame, you go down, you hunker and you turtle in."

Unemployment by city

Looking at unemployment in Alberta’s four largest cities, Calgary’s rate was the highest last month, sitting at 6.7 per cent – compared to 6.6 per cent in February.

“The modest uptick in unemployment reflects more people looking for work, not job losses,” said Afiba Nyamekye, director of economic intelligence at Calgary Economic Development, in a news release. “Though trade uncertainty and global volatility are weighing on how quickly employers hire.”

Edmonton’s jobless rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 6.5 per cent.

In Red Deer, the unemployment rate was 6.3 per cent in March – a massive decrease from 7.2 per cent the month prior.

Lethbridge also saw large movement, dropping to six per cent in March from 6.8 per cent in February.

Employment rises in natural resources

Employment in Alberta was up 0.2 per cent from February to March, and 0.4 per cent year-over-year.

Nationally, Statistics Canada says employment increased by three per cent (10,000 jobs) in natural resources, with nearly half of those gains coming from Alberta (4,500 jobs).

However, on a year-over-year basis, employment in the industry was little changed at the national level and in Alberta.