Todd Hirsch, senior economist at ATB Financial, says population growth in the West has been a trend for decades now and last year the number of people “sprinting” West became a “full-scale stampede.”
The fastest growing region is decidedly the Prairies — with Alberta well in the lead, he says.
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EDMONTON – If you’re looking for a job in Newfoundland and Labrador, good luck. You’ll need plenty of it.
For every job opening, there were 16 job seekers in December, according to recent StatsCan data. In New Brunswick, the ratio was a still-stratospheric 10.5-to-one.
The odds of landing a job were only marginally better in Ontario, where eight applicants fought over every vacancy.
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Despite all the recent talk about personal debt loads Canadians are carrying, there was some good news recently from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada.
In Alberta, there were 346 personal bankruptcies filed in December of last year and that is down from 420 in November.
Todd Hirsch, senior economist at ATB Financial, says that’s the lowest level of bankruptcies since December 2007.
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Most people are aware that Alberta’s employment picture is a pretty good one.
In February, the province had the second lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.5 per cent, behind only Saskatchewan’s 3.8 per cent.
As a contrast, the national unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.
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Data from the Conference Board of Canada shows exactly why Calgary and Alberta have tremendous levels of spending compared with the rest of the country.
Whether it’s luxury home sales, luxury cars or luxury retail, people in these parts have in recent years shown a propensity to spend their hard-earned dollars.
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According to a study released today by BMO Financial Group, Albertans are the most likely in Canada to start their own business in retirement.
The survey showed that 53 per cent felt that way.
In Canada, it showed that 39 per cent say that it is likely they will start their own business after they reach retirement age (65 years old). But 81 per cent plan on working in some capacity during their retirement.
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It’s no secret that Alberta is a wealthy province and that wealth has led to a spike recently in luxury purchases for everything from homes to cars to clothing.
News from Statistics Canada this week just confirms that.
The federal agency released data from the 2010 tax year which showed that the income gap in the province is increasing.
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Alberta’s population is growing at the fastest pace since 1980, Statistics Canada reports.
During the third quarter, Alberta’s population grew by 33,100 or 0.9 per cent, the agency says, pushing the provincial total to 3,906,800 as of Oct. 1. At current growth rates, Alberta’s population is on track to surpass the four million mark over the next year or so.
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If federal cabinet ministers Jason Kenney, Maxime Bernier and Ed Fast didn’t fully appreciate just how much northern Alberta’s oilsands-driven economy is contributing to Canada’s GDP, or the magnitude of the region’s pressing labour force needs, they do now.
A delegation of Edmonton business and educational leaders travelled to Ottawa last week, where they delivered that message in spades in private meetings with several senior members of the Harper government.
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CALGARY— While the number of people receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits increased in August,Alberta still had the biggest year-over-year decrease in recipients, according to data released Thursday by Statistics Canada.
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