Alberta employment close to 2014 levels

Alberta is inching closer to employment levels last seen during the heady days of the province's previous economic boom in 2014.

Statistics Canada's latest job numbers show an unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent for the province, just north of the 5.1 per cent national rate.

And a bump in employment in professional scientific and technical services, as well as transportation and warehousing, make up most of the gains.

• Canada's unemployment rate dropped to lowest level on record in March to 5.3%

A University of Calgary economist says the province is now just shy of a peak employment period experienced about eight years ago. In 2014, the unemployment rate in the province dropped as low as 4.4 per cent.

"We are nearly at the 2014 level in terms of labour market employment rates," Trevor Tombe told CBC News in a Friday interview.

"We need about 17,000 more jobs in the province to have fully recovered back to 2014 levels, and we've never been that close before. So there's only just a little bit of recovery left to return to pre-recession levels."

Employment in Alberta grew by 28,000 jobs in May 2022, a gain of 1.2 per cent over the same period one year ago, and that continued April gains.

The number of working women between 25 and 54 years of age sits at 81 per cent, which Tombe says is the highest it's ever been in Alberta.