More people are working in Calgary than ever, and yet the unemployment rate is on the rise

The huge influx of newcomers to Alberta has helped drive the job market in Calgary into strange territory, with the city seeing record levels of employment and surging levels of unemployment at the same time. 

The unemployment rate shot up to 6.5 per cent in March, up 0.4 percentage points from the month before. The increase was driven not by a loss of jobs but rather the sheer growth in people looking for work.

An estimated 64,500 people in the Calgary metropolitan area were looking for work, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada, which is the most the city has seen in nearly two years.

At the same time, the number of people working grew to 931,600, which is the most the city has seen — ever.

"There's no doubt about it: there's a dramatic influx of additional people entering into the job market here," said Cristina Schultz with About Staffing, a Calgary-based recruitment and employment agency.

One thing she's been seeing "over and over" lately is people moving to Calgary primarily because they see it as more affordable than other major cities, even if they don't have a formal job offer lined up.

"Cost of living in Calgary is the No. 1 driving factor that brings people here to entertain the [job] markets," she said.

"More often than not we are seeing that people are taking the leap of faith and making the move and looking for a job once they've landed."

The number of people not in the labour force (that is, neither working nor looking for work) has also been on the decline; it's fallen every month so far in 2024.

Alicia Planincic, an economist with the Business Council of Alberta, said the province has an attractive mix of both "housing affordability and job opportunity" at the moment, which has helped attract newcomers, particularly from more expensive housing markets in Ontario and British Columbia.

(While home prices have soared in Calgary recently, they still remain well below what people are paying in the greater Vancouver and greater Toronto areas.)

Numerous industries in Alberta are eager to hire new workers, she noted, which makes the move easier for those with the right skills.

"Construction has one of the highest job vacancy rates in Alberta — way higher than the national average," Planincic told CBC's Alberta@Noon.

"And a part of that is because of so many folks moving here, which is driving greater demand for housing and so builders are trying to respond to that."