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A 4.3 per cent drop in average weekly earnings in Alberta for January is the biggest year-over-year decline in the province on record, versus comparable data dating back to 2001, according to Statistics Canada.

The federal agency reported average earnings dropped to $1,121 for the month — their lowest level since October 2013. On a monthly basis, earnings declined by 2.2 per cent.

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StatsCan noted that the sharp year-over-year decline was due, in part, to the fact that Alberta’s weekly earnings actually hit their peak in the first month of 2015, at $1,172. A drop in the number of people working in the high-earning resource sector was the biggest contributor to the lower earnings, it said.

But the decreased earnings were widespread, “observed in almost all industries on a year-over-year basis.”

Compared with national numbers, earnings in Alberta are still the highest among all provinces and significantly higher than the national average, by more than 16 per cent, or $168 per week.

Meanwhile, the number of working Albertans also dropped, as employment in the province dropped by 83,200 jobs (four per cent) from January 2015. On a monthly basis, the number of jobs was down by 15,400, or 0.8 per cent.

Nearly 30 per cent of the job losses have come in the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector, which has seen employment shrink by 18.7 per cent, or 24,491 jobs, since January 2015.

Overall employment in Alberta was 2,001,069 jobs, the province’s lowest total since July 2013.

Nationally, the number of non-farm payroll jobs was up 136,100 (0.9 per cent) year-over-year. On a monthly basis, employment dropped by 10,200 jobs (0.1 per cent).