Article content

Alberta has just set a record. No, it has nothing to do with our cold weather. It has to do with joblessness.

While Canada’s employment numbers are up, Alberta’s are down and that’s bad news, not just for Alberta but for the entire country.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Corbella: Disastrous policies have created desperate times for Alberta's young men Back to video

University of Calgary associate economics professor Trevor Tombe has crunched Statistics Canada’s latest numbers released Friday and discovered that in January the share of young men employed reached the lowest level on record. Ever since records have been kept, starting in 1967, the number of young men without a job has never been higher.

Less than 55 per cent of young men between the ages of 15 to 24 have a job — or about 45 per cent don’t!

According to Tombe, when the recession started in October 2014, 67 per cent of men aged 15 to 24 had a job. In 2016, when the recession formally ended, 60 per cent had a job.

But now, in 2019 — when much of the rest of the country appears to be rebounding soundly from the end of the economic doldrums in 2016 — Alberta’s young men are even worse off than at the peak of the recession.