Varcoe: Alberta in 'a league of its own' with 42,000 new jobs in September, while oil dips below $59

As oil prices slumped below US$59 a barrel on Friday, some solid news was bobbing above the choppy economic waters on another important front for Alberta — jobs.

As in, a lot more people are working across the province.

In fact, 42,500 new jobs were created in the province last month, making up more than 70 per cent of the entire country’s employment gains in September, according to the latest labour force survey by Statistics Canada.

“As far as we can see, outside of some of the (pandemic) craziness in 2020, it was the single-biggest monthly increase in Alberta jobs on record,” BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in an interview.

With a 1.7 per cent bump in provincial employment between August and last month, c onsider this a glass-half-full moment as a turbulent 2025 continues th