ALBERTA FLOODING IN JUNE CAUSED LOSS OF 5 MILLION HOURS OF WORK

Ottawa – Extensive flooding affected Southern Alberta in the second half of June 2013. As a result, 300,000 employed Albertans, or 13.5% of the total employed population in the province, lost 7.5 million hours of work during that period, according to a review by Statistics Canada. At the same time, 134,000 people, or 6.0% of workers, put in 2.4 million additional hours. The net effect was a loss of 5.1 million hours of work.

There was a net loss in hours worked in all industries, except utilities and public administration. Workers in those industries experienced a small net gain in their hours as a result of the flooding. In some industries, however, the net losses were large.

Workers in natural resources, the majority of whom are in oil and gas extraction, totalled 1.4 million hours lost, as one in four in the industry worked fewer hours.

In utilities, 98,000 hours were added to workers’ schedules as a result of the flooding. In construction, 7.9% of workers put in 440,000 additional hours in the second half of June, the highest among all industries.

The proportion working fewer hours was similar for men and women, at 13.8% and 13.2% respectively. The average number of hours lost by men, however, at 26.2 hours, was more than the 23.5 hours lost by women.