Professor predicts more job losses in Alberta

As the strongest economic engine of the country continues to be weighed down by low oil prices, it can be said that the best guess for Alberta regarding the number of jobs the province will lose this year might prove to be an underestimation.

As the strongest economic engine of the country continues to be weighed down by low oil prices, it can be said that the best guess for Alberta regarding the number of jobs the province will lose this year might prove to be an underestimation.

Jack Mintz, a professor of fiscal and tax policy at the University of Calgary and former president of the C.D. Howe Institute think-tank, said that currently there is so much uncertainty that it is pretty hard to predict what’s going to happen in the economy. He said that he suspects there are more bad news waiting and that it’s not over yet.

The Finance Minister of Alberta Iris Evans announced this week that the province would table its first deficit budget in fifteen years and he projected that more than 15,000 Albertans would lose their jobs in this time of recession.

The projected job loss in Alberta would push the unemployment rate in the province to 5.8 percent in 2009, which was 4.4 percent in January and 4.2 percent in December.

Alberta Treasury Board economist Dan Summer said that it is very difficult to determine any specific number regarding the job losses and the unemployment rate in the province, but said that somebody needs to do it. He said that the currently he trend us moving towards higher unemployment.

Alberta Employment and Immigration spokeswoman Janice Schroeder said that till now, the department hasn’t run the numbers in order to determine the sectors of the economy that will be hit hardest by jobs losses.