Drayton Valley area unemployment at 5.5 per cent; employment on the rise provincewide

The large statistical area that includes Drayton Valley saw an unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent in February — the second lowest among seven Alberta regions.

That’s according to the Alberta government’s latest Labour Force Survey, which shows the Red Deer statistical region posted the lowest unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent in February. The Camrose-Drumheller region say the highest at 7.4 per cent.

Across the province, Alberta’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3 per cent in February 2026, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month and down 0.5 percentage points from the same month last year.

Alberta’s unemployment rate was the fifth lowest in Canada. The national unemployment rate at 6.7 per cent was 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous month.

While full time employment dipped slightly month-over-month (-17,300), part time employment grew (+15,400). However, both saw gains year-over-year with full time up by around 70,000 positions and part-time up 15,000.

In all, there were about 2.65 million Albertans employed in February 2026.

Employment increased among the self-employed (+5,300) and decreased in the private sector (-5,700) and in the public sector (-1,500).

The largest monthly employment gains were in health care and social assistance (+12,500); utilities (+3,500); and transportation and warehousing (+3,200).

The largest monthly employment decreases were in wholesale and retail trade (-6,300); professional, scientific and technical services (-5,700); and other services (except public administration) (-4,700).

The average weekly wage of workers was $1420 — up 3.2 per cent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported a sharp drop in employment nationwide that caught economists by surprise.

StatCan said Friday that Canadian employers collectively shed 84,000 positions in February, driving the unemployment rate up two tenths of a point to 6.7 per cent.

“This was a very bad report on almost every single measure,” said CIBC senior economist Katherine Judge.

February saw more than 100,000 jobs lost in full-time work, while private sector employment fell by 73,000 positions.

A Reuters poll of economists heading into Friday’s release expected a slight rise in the unemployment rate but also called for a gain of 10,000 jobs last month.