The number of starts for single-family housing construction fell narrowly in St. Albert compared to this time last year, slightly bucking the growth trend in the Edmonton metropolitan area.
Richard Cho, senior market analyst for the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), said there were 13 housing starts last month in St. Albert, compared to 15 the previous February. There were no multi-family housing starts either this or last February.
That goes against numbers for the Capital region as a whole, which saw five-per-cent growth in single-detached starts and a 69.8-per-cent climb in multi-family. Cho said the CMHC attributes the increases in construction to an improved economy.
“The economy is being supported by activity in the energy sector,” Cho said. “There’s more growth and employment and with that, we’re seeing a stronger demand for housing, which means more new homes being started.”
Alberta’s unemployment rate inched up 0.1 per cent in the month of February compared to last month, according to labour force statistics released Friday.
The rate now stands at five per cent provincially, down .07 percentage points from February of 2011. In total, the labour force dropped by 7,000 and employment 7,200 from January to February of this year. The national unemployment rate stands at 7.4 per cent. Alberta and Saskatchewan are tied for the lowest unemployment rate by province.
Calgary (5.2 per cent) and Edmonton (5.3 per cent) ranked third and fourth respectively for the lowest municipal unemployment rates across Canada, with only Regina (4.4 per cent) and Quebec City (5.1 per cent) reporting lower percentages.
The industries that added the most jobs in February were accommodation and food services (10,400), construction (9,700) and the combination forestry, fishing, mining and oil and gas (4,300).
The latest report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) indicates confidence in the province’s small businesses is holding at a steady rate, with a quarter of entrepreneurs planning on hiring more full-time workers over the next three to four months.
The CFIB’s Business Barometer, released earlier this week, showed confidence levels among small business owners in Alberta held steady from January to February, clocking in at 72.3 for last month, only one point lower than January’s score.
On the whole, the Business Barometer shows Alberta business owners are the most confident in the country, ranking six points higher than the national average. The national confidence index increased 0.8 to 66 in February.
The CFIB uses a scale of zero to 100 to gauge business confidence from respondents. The February numbers are based on a total of 877 responses.
