Alberta’s inflation-adjusted economic output grew 3.3 per cent in 2025, according to provincial economic accounts released by Statistics Canada on November 5. That outpaced Canada’s 1.9-per-cent national growth rate. Alberta Finance Minister Jason Nixon drew attention to the figures on November 6, describing them as evidence of strength in the province’s economy.
The positive annual GDP reading arrived almost alongside a much less encouraging current employment report. Statistics Canada estimated that Alberta employment fell by approximately 24,300 in October 2026, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.3 per cent. These figures are not contradictory: GDP measures the value of production over all of 2025, while the labour survey captures conditions in a particular month almost a year later.
The pressing question for Calgary businesses and workers is whether investment, wages, productivity and job creation are moving together as the province enters 2027. Calgary’s major oil companies reported powerful quarterly earnings in recent days, yet those results cannot be assumed to translate proportionately into hiring. A fuller account should use quarterly GDP forecasts, industry-level employment data and inflation-adjusted earnings rather than relying on a single annual growth figure.
