Alberta April 2015 Employment Numbers

I already looked at the employment numbers for Ontario earlier today so I thought I would look at the Alberta numbers as well.

Employment actually rose by 12.5 thousand in April, however since December it is only up by 13.7 thousand.

Full time employment was down by 7.6 thousand in April versus an increase of 21 thousand part-time jobs. More worryingly, full-time employment is down by 22.8 thousand since December.

The working age population is up by 21.3 thousand since December.

The full effect of lower oil prices haven't really been seen yet and may take more time to emerge. Compared to Ontario however, Alberta isn't really doing that bad.

Ontario Electricity: February 2014 Final Global Adjustment, March Initial Estimate

Ontario has continued its string of low global adjustment charges for electricity this winter. February's final global adjustment came in at a rather low of 1.33 cents per kilowatt hour. That was lower than the initial estimate of 2.23 cents, but slightly higher than January's 1.26 cents per kilowatt hour. That's a considerable decrease from last year's 4.81 cents.

Why so low? Probably because as in January it was really cold and people used more electricity, especially at night for supplemental heating (when the wind is blowing and wind turbine production is high). That combined with seasonally low production from expensive wind and solar producers produces a low global adjustment. It is a little strange that the February rate is so low compared to last year, however it has been significantly colder.

March's estimate is again really low in historical terms at 1.1 cents, especially compared to last year's 4.93 cents. Again March has been a lot colder than last year, so energy consumption should be up. April should be interesting as hopefully it will be considerably warmer with lower consumption and more production from solar should lead to a considerable increase in the global adjustment. Last April's was 5.86 cents.