On Friday, Statistics Canada unveiled the January 2024 Labour Force Survey, indicating that Alberta's unemployment rate stands at 6.2 per cent.

While the survey didn't have any Airdrie-centric numbers, Wendy Smith, the Program Manager for Rocky View and Wheatland Employment Services with Prospect Human Services talked about what they have been seeing in Airdrie since the beginning of 2024.

"Typically in January, what we see is that employers have less work available after Christmas, so January is usually a slow month for hiring."

Smith mentioned how the world currently is inflation-wise, a lot of people are looking for jobs.

"With the current state of the economy, and everybody dealing with inflation, we have a lot more job searchers right now. We have more people looking than there are jobs available right now."

With spring just around the corner, Smith does believe more employers will be looking for workers sooner rather than later.

"When we have more of those seasonal jobs come available, they get filled pretty quick."

One thing Smith is seeing more than ever right now is people looking for a second job because the cost of living is so high.

"Even during COVID, it wasn't this level of people needing to find more work.

Smith finished off by saying labour jobs, trades jobs and warehousing roles are always hiring in the Airdrie and Balzac areas.

Calgary is sitting at a 5.8 per cent unemployment rate. Across Canada, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 per cent to 5.7 per cent, marking the first decline since December 2022.

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