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Alberta’s unemployment rate could increase in the first half of 2016 to between 7.5 and 8.0 per cent, economist Todd Hirsch said Friday as Statistics Canada released new labour force statistics for the year just ended.

The provincial unemployment rate climbed from 4.7 per cent to 7.0 per cent during 2015 as the province, troubled by slumping oil prices that have led to thousands of layoffs, closed the year within spitting distance of the 7.1-per-cent national average. The last time Alberta’s unemployment rate was higher than 7.0 per cent was in April 2010, Statistics Canada said.

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The dismal jobs numbers prompted calls from the Wildrose Opposition and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for an emergency debate in the legislature on the state of Alberta’s economy.

MLAs should be brought back to develop “practical solutions on how to stem the tide of job losses and to rebuild our economy,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said. “Where employees are out of work for months and months and can’t find jobs, that’s not the Alberta way.”