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Thankfully, crude prices have rallied in recent weeks and are much higher than last year’s dismal lows, when oil plunged below US$30 a barrel — and the provincial economy shrank by 3.7 per cent.

In fact, oil prices continue to affect everything from jobs, investment and overall economic growth to the levels of corporate and personal income taxes paid into provincial coffers.

As oil prices have rebounded this fall — closing Tuesday at US$57.99 a barrel, although the province’s price forecast curiously remains at $49 — Alberta’s gross domestic product (GDP) is now expected to increase by four per cent in 2017-18, Ceci said.

The fiscal update also points out 41,000 of the 62,000 jobs lost during the recession have been regained.

While the unemployment rate remains high at 7.8 per cent, the government anticipates overall employment growth of one per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2018.

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Other areas of the economy are also improving.

After two years of recession, pent-up demand to buy new furniture, trucks and cars has returned with a vengeance. Stores are buzzing and retail sales are up eight per cent year to date.

The number of housing starts expected this fiscal year has been hiked to 28,700 units from 24,500.

But where are the new jobs coming from? Mainly from areas of the economy that shed employment during the recession, said the finance minister.

If you look at when employment peaked in September 2015 to the trough in July 2016, the mining, forestry, oil and gas sectors lost 27,500 jobs. These sectors have seen 20,000 positions created since that low point.

Another 8,000 new jobs have come from the manufacturing industry, which dropped 24,000 jobs during the downturn.

For thousands of Albertans hunting for work, it’s positive to see more help-wanted ads. From a diversification standpoint, however, there’s little evidence the makeup of the employment base has shifted dramatically.

“The (jobs) that were lost are coming back, so that’s in the oil and gas sector, that’s in the affiliated trades,” Ceci told reporters.

“They came back first, probably in the oil and gas sector, because they were lost first, but they’re going to be diversifying across the economy as diversification takes hold.”