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Alberta lost 18,000 jobs in November, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada on Friday.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the decline occurred in a number of industries, led by wholesale and retail trade.

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On a year-over-year basis, the total employment in the province has seen little change. As more people are seeking employment in the province the unemployment rate rose by 0.5 per cent to 7.2 per cent. This is a number seen as recently as August, according to StatsCan, but had since rebounded to 6.6 in September and 6.7 in October.

Edmonton region sees modest improvements

Felicia Mutheardy, a senior economist with the City of Edmonton, said the Edmonton area saw some modest improvements. Employment in the region actually increased by 2,400 but Mutheardy pointed out most of these jobs were part-time.

“Full-time employment continues to see weakness,” she said. “We do see some signs of stabilization but moving forward, we are anticipating a slower recovery for the broader region’s economy and along with that, slower changes to the labour force. We are anticipating (the labour force) to improve in 2020.”