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Albertans should brace for a second year of recession as prolonged low crude prices continue to cut investment and employment across many sectors, ATB Financial said Thursday in a mostly grim first-quarter economic outlook.

It warned the current economic downturn will likely grow worse before improving in the second half of 2016, with the provincial economy contracting by 0.5 per cent following an expected 1 per cent decline in 2015.

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The last time Alberta’s economy contracted in consecutive years was 1982-1983.

“We do see the first half of 2016 probably being the toughest months of this recession for Albertans,” ATB chief economist Todd Hirsch said Thursday.

“We will see more contractions in the economy, we will see more layoffs and that will add to a heightened unemployment rate.”

The ATB report forecasts Alberta’s unemployment rate to rise from 6 per cent in 2015 to 7.2 per cent this year before falling to 6.3 per cent in 2017 and 5.9 per cent in 2018. Employment will fall by 0.3 per cent this year after 1.2 per cent growth in 2015, it said.