Friday’s Owl reported that the number of seasonally adjusted jobs in Alberta increased by 0.7%, or about 15,400 positions, in November. The increase lifted employment in the province above its pre-pandemic level by 0.4%.

Notwithstanding the overall improvement, the growth has been lopsided on both a monthly basis and compared to before the pandemic.

Between October 2021 and November 2021, 8 out of 16 industries added jobs while the other 8 shed them.

Sectors that saw increases include other services (+8.5%), construction (+2.9%) and transportation and warehousing (+2.0%).

Sectors that saw decreases include education (-3.2%), public administration (-1.7%) and manufacturing (-1.7%).

There is a similar division compared to where things stood before the pandemic with the number of jobs in November 2021 compared to February 2020 higher in 8 industries but lower in the other 8.

The finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sector was up the most at +22.7% above February 2020 followed by transportation and warehousing at +11.3% and wholesale and retail trade at +8.8%.

Sectors that are yet to catch-up to February 2020 include Agriculture at -31.4%, accommodation and food services at -22.4% and utilities at -17.7%.

Answer to the previous trivia question: If you work 40 hours a week from age 20-65 with two weeks of vacation per year, you will work a total of 90,000 hours.

Today’s trivia question: How long did it take to build New York’s Empire State Building?