Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake July unemployment doubles since lockdowns began in March

Laura Beamish
Aug 07, 2020  •  August 7, 2020  •  1 minute read
The parking lot of the Townhall Public House in downtown Fort McMurray on Saturday, April 4, 2020. The Alberta government has ordered all restaurants to only serve take-out and delivery due to COVID-19 restrictions. Laura Beamish/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia Network
The parking lot of the Townhall Public House in downtown Fort McMurray on Saturday, April 4, 2020. The restaurant closed after COVID-19 lockdowns began in March and when the site flooded in late April. Laura Beamish/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia Network jpg, FM

The unemployment rate in the Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake region has nearly doubled since COVID-19 lockdowns began in March.

Statistics Canada data released Friday shows an unemployment rate of 12 per cent for the census region covering the Wood Buffalo area and Fort McMurray.

This is an increase from 11.6 per cent in June. As lockdowns began in March, unemployment hit 6.3 per cent. This was followed by 7.9 per cent in April and 9.9 per cent in May.

Despite this, the region saw an increase of 1,000 full-time jobs and 300 part-time jobs from June.

Construction added 600 new jobs from the previous month, as did the sector covering food and accomodations.

The natural resources sector, which includes the oilsands, saw no major job losses or new positions added from the previous month.

The biggest increase from June is in the service-producing sector, which saw an added 800 jobs. This is the first increase the sector has seen since the COVID-19 lockdowns began.

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The biggest loss from June was in education, which saw a loss of 300 jobs. Retail saw 100 jobs disappear.

The unemployment rate in Alberta and Canada has dropped for the first time since March.

Alberta’s unemployment rate dropped by 2.7 percentage points, not sitting at 12.8 per cent. The drop is the third-largest in the country, although Alberta still has the second-highest unemployment rate across the provinces.

In Edmonton, the unemployment rate sits at 15.0 per cent, a drop from 15.7 per cent in June.

Out of the country’s major cities, Calgary has the highest employment rate with 15.5 per cent.

Across Canada the unemployment rate has gone down to 10.9 per cent after hitting a record high of 13.7 per cent in May.

-With files from Dustin Cook

lbeamish@postmedia.com