Alberta leads country in job creation—thanks to growing government sector

According to new data from Statistics Canada, from July 2025 to July 2026, Alberta created 91,000 jobs—an increase of 3.5 per cent—leading Canada in job creation over the period. But a closer look at the data reveals the real driver isn’t Alberta’s private sector.

Over the period, health care and social assistance (where the majority of workers are in the government sector) led in job creation, growing by 18.7 per cent (61,000 jobs). Public administration—what’s often thought of as core government jobs—grew by 3.7 per cent (4,800 jobs).

Overall, growth in health care, social services, education and public administration jobs—again, predominantly government-sector jobs—accounted for 76.8 per cent of total job growth over the period.

Reports cite Alberta’s rapid population growth as rationale for the surge in government jobs. It’s true—to some extent, an expanding population may call for more health-care resources, for example. But the private sector must ultimately pay for the government sector. Put simply, the larger government’s share of employment, the greater the burden on taxpayers to support government workers. And the size of government has already been expanding.

According to a recent study, government employment (as a share of total employment) in Alberta is already nearly 20 per cent. That means nearly one-in-five jobs is in the government sector. This reflects rapid growth in government jobs over roughly the last decade—outpacing private-sector job growth. At the same time, total compensation for government workers has grown by $8.1 billion—an 11.6 per cent increase.

And public administration has grown even faster than overall government-sector employment since 2015. For perspective, from 2015 to 2024, public administration jobs have grown by 3.0 per cent (on average) annually while the private sector grew by just 1.4 per cent (on average).

Again, unlike nurses or teachers, many of the people working in public administration do not directly provide goods or services for the broader economy. Most of these jobs are what people think of as a core government job and reflect “overhead costs” of the government itself. Rising overhead costs are dangerous for a province routinely facing budget deficits, particularly when private-sector job growth isn’t keeping up.

Alberta leads the country in the rate of job growth, but this doesn’t reflect a booming private sector. It’s the result of rapid growth in government jobs, which everyday Albertans must ultimately pay for with their tax dollars.