Alberta’s unemployment rate was one of the highest in the country in April as measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced non-essential businesses to close temporarily, devastating the economy.
New numbers released by Statistics Canada on Friday show the jobless rate in the province spiked to 13.4 per cent in April from 8.7 per cent the month before.
Only Newfoundland and Labrador (16 per cent) and Quebec (17 per cent) had higher provincial jobless numbers. April marked the second month in a row that employment declined in all provinces.
In Calgary, the unemployment rate jumped to 10.8 per cent in April from 8.6 per cent the month prior, when it was the highest in the country — a title taken over by Windsor, Ont., in April, which