Let’s look the job market in the province of Alberta: the real estate market in the province is not the only that has been suffering.

The job market has been confusing: overall, the province has seen an unemployment rate of almost 9%; Calgary and Edmonton have 10.2%, and 6.9% respectively. The unemployment rate of Edmonton is right below that of the national average. Two years ago, both cities had unemployment rate of about 5% but the city of Calgary has seen that figure more than double.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE?!   

Both mentioned cities’ job markets depend greatly on the energy industry. However, Edmonton is home to the provincial government. 20%-25% of the workforce have jobs in the public sector. This is according to the chief economist of Edmonton, John Rose.

“Those sectors loom relatively large in the Edmonton economy, particularly the city of Edmonton,” said Rose. “And so they have provided a little bit of a foundation.”

Here is the breakdown:

7,000 jobs from the health-care hiring and;

7,000 jobs from public administration.

With these 14,000 new jobs, the 15,000 that were lost in the construction sector in Edmonton have brought the job market some needed balance.

Even though Alberta was faced with deficit, the provincial government did not cut jobs, and Mr. Rose is quite grateful for this.

Meanwhile in the city of Calgary, the job market does not seem to be getting any better: there are lesser the number of people working in the public administration, and health-care sector compared to a year ago in the same city. However, there are more people working in the education sector.

Prior to the dip in oil prices in 2014 in the city of Calgary, the top jobs there were in the offices—head office jobs—and professional jobs.

“We do know that the oil and gas sector in Calgary tends to be the head office jobs, more of the ones around the planning of new projects,” said Todd Hirsch, chief economist at ATB Financial.