Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader

In December 2022, the unemployment rate in the economic region which includes the Lesser Slave and Peace regions was better than it had been in November or the year before.

Alberta is divided into seven economic regions.

Slave Lake, Wabasca, High Prairie, Peace River, Falher, and surrounding communities are in ‘Banff – Jasper – Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca – Grande Prairie – Peace River.’ It covers western Alberta from the border with the United States to the border with the Northwest Territories. In the south it is narrow, but widens to more than half of Alberta south of Athabasca. It is called ‘western Alberta’ throughout this article.

In December 2022, western Alberta had an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent. Generally, a lower unemployment rate is seen as better. This was an improvement over the previous month (5.6 per cent) and the previous year (6.4 per cent).

However, compared to the rest of the province, this was the third highest (worst) in the province.

In December 2022, the unemployment rate in Alberta was 5.8 per cent. By economic region this was broken down from lowest to highest (percentages) as: Lethbridge – Medicine Hat (2.8), Camrose – Drumheller (3.2), Wood Buffalo – Cold Lake (4.7), Edmonton (4.9), western Alberta (5.2), Calgary (5.7), and Red Deer (6.4).

Community unemployment

The December 2022 rate in western Alberta was likely not evenly distributed across the region. However, community-specific data is only released in the Census.

The 2021 Census is based on information gained from 25 per cent of the population who filled out a survey about employment information for the week of May 2 to 8, 2021.

In May 2021, western Alberta had the lowest unemployment rate in Alberta at 4.7 per cent, says the Alberta Labour Force statistics from that month.

This was lower than the situation in December 2022.

In general, a low unemployment rate and a high employment rate are considered good. However, the relationship between unemployment and employment is not straightforward.

For example, in the Census, Bigstone Cree Nation (Jean Baptiste Gambler) had a zero per cent unemployment, but only 25 per cent employment.

Here are four other unemployment and employment rates (percentages) in the area: Canyon Creek (5.7 and 73.3), Slave Lake (9.6 and 68.2), Loon River First Nation (22.2 and 45.2), and M.D. #17 Opportunity (17.5 and 50.1).

However, the monthly statistics do not divide the employment rate by regions, so regional or local numbers are only available in the Census.

Most of a sample of communities in Lesser Slave and Peace regions had a higher unemployment rate than the average for western Alberta suggestioned.

Out of this sample, the best rate (other than communities with zero) was 5.7 in Canyon Creek and the worst was 28.6 in Swan River First Nation.

Four small communities had an estimated unemployment rate of zero percent – Kinuso (workforce of 125 people), Sawridge First Nation (35 people), Bigstone Cree Nation – Desmarais (90 people) and Bigstone Jean Baptiste Gambler (160 people).

This did not however translate into a high employment rate, as a large number of people were either retired or not looking for work (not in the labour force).

These communities had the following employment rates: Kinuso (44 per cent), Sawridge (57.1 per cent), Bigstone (Desmarais) (72.2 per cent), and Bigstone (Jean Baptiste) (25 per cent).

Here is a sample of the area communities listed from lowest (excluding ones with zero) to highest: Canyon Creek (5.7), Widewater (7.9), Peace River (7.9), M.D. #124 (8.8), M.D. of Peace (9.4), Slave Lake (9.6), Falher (11.6), High Prairie (11.8), Big Lakes County (12.5), Wabasca-Desmarais (16.9), M.D. #17 Opportunity (17.5), Bigstone Cree Nation (15.9), Driftpile First Nation (20.9), Loon River First Nation (22.2), Smith (25), East Prairie Métis Settlement (26.3), and Swan River First Nation (28.6).

Editor’s notes: The Census lists Bigstone by individual reserves and settlement. The Bigstone number is found by adding all unemployment numbers and dividing these from the total number of eligible workers. Unless otherwise stated, data is from the Alberta Labour Force Statistics.