No, it’s not a boom. But higher oil prices are helping lower unemployment rates in the city, according to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Over the past year, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil has gone from US$47.84 a barrel to US$70.51.
“Now with these prices, we are more optimistic that we are finally beginning to see the recovery hit that new chapter profitability and some actual hiring taking place in certain sectors of the economy,” said Scott Crockatt, director of communications at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
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Companies in the energy sector, like Integrated Sustainability, are hiring. The engineering firm specializes in water solutions in the oil patch.
President Stuart Torr said his company has grown by 50 per cent in recent weeks.
“I think part of it is timing. We have been in recession for a couple of years now, people have to spend some money in order to get their strategies right,” he said.
“I think part of it is there is a longer-term optimism in the way commodity prices, generally speaking, are on the uptick.”
Calgary’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.3 per cent last April to eight per cent in April of this year, according to Statistics Canada.
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That’s still well off the national rate of 5.8 per cent but Crockatt said it could be the start of better days ahead.
“While it’s certainly not party time in the Calgary economy just yet, things continue to show that slow, steady improvement,” he said.
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