October was a relatively strong jobs month all around, as employment saw a net increase across Alberta, and unemployment dipped in the Drayton Valley area.
That’s according to new data from Statistics Canada, which shows the Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House-Grande Prairie-Peace River area has a six per cent unemployment rate. That’s down from 6.9 per cent in September and 7.2 per cent in August.
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Provincewide, Alberta’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent in October 2025, unchanged from the previous month and up 0.2 percentage points from the same month last year.
However, the province saw net job gains on a year-over-year basis, with both full time employment (+74,000, and part time (+23,000) up from a year ago.
October saw gains in part time employment to 480,600 (+13,300), but that was offset by a drop in full time positions to 2,135,300 (-2,900).
Overall, there were 2,615,900 people employed in Alberta, an increase of 10,300 (+0.4 per cent) from the previous month and an increase of 97,100 (+3.9 per cent) compared to October 2024.
By economic regions, the seasonally unadjusted three-month moving average unemployment rate was lowest in Camrose-Drumheller (5.5 per cent) and highest in Lethbridge-Medicine Hat (8.6 per cent).
Unemployment in the two big cities continues to be among the highest in the province, with Calgary at 7.6 per cent and Edmonton at 8.2 per cent.
On a year-over-year basis, employment increased the most in: sales and service occupations; occupations in education, law and social, community and government services; and occupations in manufacturing and utilities.
Employment decreased in the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing industries, as well as healthcare and educational services.
Monthly employment growth by industry. (Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey)
Nationally, the labour market caught economists off guard with a second straight month of surprise job gains in October.
Statistics Canada says the economy added 67,000 jobs last month, with the gains concentrated in part time work.
It was also a solid month for Canadian youth looking for work.
Economists had expected the labour market would take a breather with a loss of 2,500, coming off another surprise gain of 60,000 positions back in September.
Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate fell two tenths of a percentage point to 6.9 per cent in October.
~ with files from The Canadian Press
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