Number of self-employed people in Alberta jumps in December
原始发布日期： 2016-01-15 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
Stephen Avenue in downtown Calgary. Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS In a research note released Friday, Roach said “whether pushed into it by the economic downturn or simply pursuing opportunities regardless of the recession,” the number of self-employed Albertans jumped by 16,700 in December. This represents an increase of 4.5 per cent, the largest monthly increase since December 2010. Meanwhile, the number of employees (people who work for others) fell in December by 20,600 (-1.1 per cent), he said. The number of self-employed Albertans is 383,800 or about 17 per cent of all workers in the province. The total number of Albertans working for themselves is, however, yet to surpass the peak reached in June 2014 (394,800), Roach added. “It is not unusual for self-employment levels to fluctuate from month-to-month so we do not want to read too much into December’s rise,” he said. “It is also too early to tell if the economic slump and accompanying layoffs will contribute to higher levels of self-employment in 2016 as Albertans are forced into self-employment because of a lack of other job opportunities.” According to the Alberta government, business incorporations in the province rose by 0.5 per cent in December from December 2014 to 3,369. However, for the whole year, they were down 11.1 per cent from 2014 to 40,556. “I think what we need to understand is we still have great talent here,” said Mary Moran, president and chief executive of Calgary Economic Development. “People are starting to re-invent themselves already . . . Albertans are resilient so in spite of having two years of economic downturn which is very harsh people are at the stage where they are re-inventing and that’s a good news story and we should focus on that as opposed to focus on looking back.” This week a report by ATB Financial forecast that Alberta’s economy would contract for the second year in a row this year. It would be the first time since 1982-1983 that the province has experienced back-to-back years of recession. In 2015, it said, the economy contracted by one per cent and will decline by 0.5 per cent this year. ATB is forecasting the unemployment rate in the province to jump to 7.2 per cent this year from six per cent in 2015. It was 4.7 per cent in January 2015. It also is expecting total employment in Alberta to decrease by 0.3 per cent this year. ATB’s Alberta forecast, by the numbers:
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