CALGARY — Alberta has the highest average weekly earnings in the country and in July the province experienced the best month-over-over month growth in earnings in Canada.

Statistics Canada reported Thursday that average weekly earnings in Alberta reached $1,094.85, up 2.5 per cent from June.

It was also up 6.1 per cent from a year ago.

Will van’t Veld, economist with ATB Financial, said stagnant inflation plus rising wages equal a higher material standard of living.

“Wages have been rising across the board in Alberta, but it’s the energy sector where they’re rising quickly, and from an already high base,” he said, adding average wages in the oil and gas sector hit $2,409 per week, up seven per cent over last year and up 29 per cent over four years ago.

“Support activities for oil and gas have moved in near lock step, hitting $1,651 per week, up nine and 22 per cent over the same periods. It may be difficult to feel too bad for energy companies that face ever-rising wage bills, but even they have limits on their ability to pay. Now, we don’t know what those limits are, but they do exist. And we do know a broader pull back in investment spending by oil and gas companies for any reason has a pretty dramatic impact on Alberta’s economy.”

Across Canada, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $906.68, up 1.1 per cent from the previous month. On a year-over-year basis, earnings increased 4.1 per cent.

Total non-farm payroll employment in Canada rose to 15,271,900, up 0.1 per cent from the previous month and by 1.9 per cent from July 2011.

Alberta employment of 1,919,500 for the month grew by 0.4 per cent on a monthly basis and by 5.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis — both rates leading the country.

Among all sectors in Canada, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction posted the highest 12-month growth rate in payroll employment at 8.1 per cent followed by the construction sector (4.6 per cent); accommodation and food services (3.4 per cent); professional, scientific and technical services (3.3 per cent) and transportation and warehousing (3.1 per cent).

In July, there were 221,400 payroll employees in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, representing 1.4 per cent of the national total. This compares with a share of 1.1 per cent in 2001. The largest proportion of employees in this sector (44 per cent) were working in support activities for mining and oil and gas extraction, which include services such as contract drilling, oil and gas well services and mine tunnelling, said Statistics Canada.

Another 27 per cent of employees worked in oil and gas extraction, while the remaining worked in metal ore mining (14 per cent), non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying (10 per cent) and coal mining (4 per cent).

Provincially, Alberta (55 per cent) had the largest share of employment in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, followed by Ontario (11 per cent), British Columbia (10 per cent) and Saskatchewan (9 per cent).

“In Alberta, the vast majority of employees in the sector were in two industries: support activities for mining and oil and gas extraction; and oil and gas extraction,” added the federal agency.