Ottawa: Newfoundland & Labrador has the highest unemployment rate among Canadian provinces at 10.7%, according to a new Labour Force Survey report from Statistics Canada. Alberta is a close second with an 8.4% unemployment rate. Both figures are higher than the national average of 7.1%.
Excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period, this is the highest rate for Alberta since 2017. The most significant job losses occurred in the construction and wholesale-retail sectors. Following the release of the new report, Alberta’s Labour Minister, Joseph Shaw, blamed the federal government’s policies for the economic downturn.
He stated that the new employment figures indicate a challenging situation across the country. The Labour Minister added that a decade of careless immigration policy has caused this crisis, noting that Alberta has the fastest-growing population in Canada due to both international and inter-provincial migration.
