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With a nod to Alberta’s faltering economy, an Edmonton business is offering layoff insurance to cover up to six months of mortgage payments for homeowners who lose their jobs.

“Unfortunately it’s a product suitable for the times,” Gord McCallum, president of the First Foundation group of companies, said Thursday.

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“Losing your job is bad enough, but we feel that losing your home as a result of it, especially when it’s really no fault of your own — you’re kind of a victim of the economic circumstances we’re all in — would be really tragic. We wouldn’t want to see somebody lose their home over it if it could be avoided.”

Alberta has seen tens of thousands of job losses since the fall of 2014, when the price of oil started its long, steep downward slide. In its latest quarterly economic outlook Thursday, ATB Financial said further rounds of layoffs are likely, especially in the energy sector. Unemployment may exceed 7.5 per cent in the first half of 2016 and will average 7.2 per cent for the year, ATB said.