While some Albertans are still feeling the effects of economic strain, business is booming for one St. Albert enterprise.
Last year, Karen Murdock, owner of Your Organized Friend, added a staff member to her small two-person home organizing business. Now she’s looking to add three more.
The business started in June 2017 and helps people organize their homes and de-clutter their lives. Many of her clients are seniors who need to organize estates after losing a loved one.
In the first year of business, she said she didn't get a lot of calls. But in 2018, the workload doubled, prompting her to hire more employees.
"(Having two staff) was kind of scary for me, I didn't know. But not only did we keep busy, I ended up still working a lot of weekends. I was often working six or seven days without a break," she explained.
Murdock is among a surge of employers who added employees to their workforce last year. According to ATB Financial – which analyzed data from Statistics Canada – in 2018 Alberta had a boost of 21,600 more jobs than in 2017.
Healthcare and social assistance jobs had the most gains by the end of the year, with 23,400 positions being added in those sectors. Business, building and other support services also saw more than 11,800 more jobs added.
Manufacturing had more than 10,000 positions added.
The majority of the new jobs were in the private sector rather than the public sector, a finding that didn’t surprise ATB chief economist Todd Hirsch.
“During the recession in 2015 and 2016, that's when we saw a big drop in private sector employment and (the) public sector picked up. Coming out of the recession in 2017 and 2018, that kind of flip-flopped," he said.
"The economy is better, even though a lot of people might not feel like it is, but it is better than it was two or three years ago."
But Alberta’s employment sector is still lagging behind the country, boasting a higher annual unemployment rate (6.7 per cent) than the rest of Canada (5.8 per cent).
This is the third year in a row the province has had a higher unemployment rate, which hasn’t happened since 1988.
The City of St. Albert doesn’t have specific unemployment rates for the community, but the 2018 census reported that 55.3 per cent of residents worked more than 30 hours each week.
Around four per cent were unemployed or unable to work, while 21.4 per cent were fully retired. Another 12.7 per cent worked part-time.
Last year, Edmonton had an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent, while Calgary had an unemployment rate of 7.9 per cent.
Hirsch said he expects unemployment rates to remain the same in 2019 and 2020.
"I would love to say things are really going to take off, but instead I think we're going to see flatness ... there's still a lot of anxiety and uncertainty around our energy sector. We don't know, even now, if there's any positive outcome for a pipeline or transportation for oil."
With so many people looking for work, businesses like Murdock’s have benefited. She said she had to close the application process after only three days to get through all the resumes flooding her desk.
“I'm going to say I received 50 (applications)," she said.
But not all employers in Alberta have had the ability to hire.
According to ATB Financial, job vacancy rates have also inched lower in the province. In the third quarter of 2018 – from July until September – 2.9 per cent of jobs remained unfilled, a minor decrease from the second quarter's three per cent.
A lower rate means fewer employers are looking to hire, implying a struggling economy.
"They are not putting up as many help wanted signs, because they don't need to hire people," Hirsch noted.
According to the Canadian Federation Of Independent Business, in December Alberta’s small business confidence took a dive, with an index of 45.1 – the largest hit in Canada.
