07:24 AM EDT, 03/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Alberta is entering the latest global oil shock with a much firmer employment base than the rest of the big four Canadian provinces, said National Bank of Canada.

That matters because Alberta's advantage isn't confined to one narrow measure of hiring but extends across total, full-time and private-sector employment, suggesting the province is starting from a position of broader labor-market resilience even as Central Canada softens, stated the bank.

Alberta is the only major province posting strong gains across all three employment measures over the past year, while Quebec is contracting across the board, Ontario's weakness is concentrated in part-time work, and British Columbia is slipping overall despite modest private-sector growth, added National Bank.

As a consequence, the regional outlook is much more uneven than the national headline suggests: the same external oil shock that adds pressure to already-soft provinces may land very differently in a province where labor demand has held up much better, according to the bank.