Alberta Loses 24,300 Jobs in October as Unemployment Jumps to 7.3%

Alberta lost 24,300 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate jumped from 6.4 to 7.3 per cent.

It was the biggest drop of any province in Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, released Friday, Nov. 6, and it wiped out the 23,100 jobs Alberta added in September. Canada as a whole lost 4,700 jobs. Alberta accounted for nearly all of it.

Four out of five of the lost jobs were part-time. And every one of them came out of the private sector or self-employment. Public sector employment actually grew.

October at a glance

Figures are seasonally adjusted.

Where the jobs went

The losses were almost all in services. Service industries shed 27,900 jobs while goods-producing industries added 3,700.

Selected industries. Nine sectors grew in October; construction was the biggest gainer.

The private sector shrank by 18,200 jobs and self-employment fell by 18,700. The public sector added 12,600. That split matters. A month where governments hire and businesses cut is not the same as a month where everyone is cutting.

Look back a year and the picture is more mixed. Construction employment is up 24,200 from October 2025. Health care and social assistance is up 42,900. Transportation and warehousing is down 8,800. If you are job hunting, the province-wide number says less than the number in your industry.

Edmonton 7.1%, Calgary 6.6%, Red Deer and Lethbridge improve

City figures are three-month moving averages for the census metropolitan area, so they lag the provincial number and move more slowly. Edmonton lost about 1,900 jobs on that measure. Calgary's employment held flat but more people entered the labour force, which pushed its rate up. Both cities are still below where they were a year ago.

Lethbridge now has the lowest unemployment of Alberta's four metro areas, which lines up with the holiday hiring push we covered there.

Why the rate jumped so much in one month

The unemployment rate moves when the number of people looking for work changes relative to the number working. In October, Alberta's labour force grew by just 1,800 while employment fell by 24,300. So the number of unemployed Albertans rose by about 26,000, to 210,200.

In other words, this was not a surge of newcomers flooding the job market. It was people who had jobs in September and did not in October.

Youth took the worst of it. Unemployment for Albertans aged 15 to 24 went from 12.5 to 15.2 per cent in a single month, higher than the national youth rate of 13.7. We flagged Alberta's youth unemployment problem back in May, and October made it worse.

Alberta is now above the national rate

Canada's unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent, the second straight monthly increase. Alberta sits 0.6 points higher and is tied with Ontario at 7.3, the fourth-highest rate in the country.

Next door, British Columbia added 12,000 jobs and sits at 6.3 per cent. Saskatchewan is at 5.9 and Manitoba at 5.0. Quebec fell to 5.7, though mostly because fewer people were looking.

Nationally, the private sector cut 53,000 jobs, the first drop since February, while the public sector added 50,000. Wholesale and retail trade lost 29,000 across the country. Average hourly wages rose 2.2 per cent from a year ago to $37.89. Nearly a quarter of unemployed Canadians have been looking for 27 weeks or more, up from 21.5 per cent a year earlier.

One bad month, not yet a trend

Some perspective. Alberta's unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent in October 2025, so even after this jump it is lower than a year ago. Employment is up about 41,000 over 12 months, or 1.6 per cent.

But the last four months have not been good. Add them up and Alberta is down 17,400 jobs net since June. September's gain now looks like a blip between two losses rather than a recovery.

The Labour Force Survey is a sample, and monthly provincial numbers swing. October's figures reflect the week of Oct. 11 to 17, not every hire and layoff across the month. One print does not make a downturn. Two or three in a row would.

Where the jobs still are

Construction, health care, public administration and food service all added jobs in October, even as the province lost ground overall. If you are looking, start where the hiring is.

Our Alberta jobs database pulls current openings from employers across the province and is updated daily. You can filter it by city: Edmonton, Calgary or Lethbridge, or browse the top employers hiring right now.

Our monthly roundups show who was posting last month: 67 employers hiring in Edmonton, 84 in Calgary, 27 in Red Deer and the November hiring push in Lethbridge.

Lost a job in October? Tell us what you're seeing

Statistics Canada counts the numbers. It does not say which companies cut, which ones are quietly hiring, or what the interviews look like right now. Albertans do.

Head to the forum to share what is happening in your industry, which employers are still moving, and what is working for people who found something. It is the one place these numbers come with names and stories attached.

What to watch next

The November report comes out Friday, Dec. 4. It will show whether October was a correction or the start of something.

Sources:

Statistics Canada: Labour Force Survey, October 2026

Statistics Canada: Labour force characteristics by province

Statistics Canada: Employment by province and industry

Statistics Canada: Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area

Government of Alberta: Labour Market Notes