One statistic that is correlated with the well-being of immigrants and certainly refugees in the communities in which they settle is the unemployment rate. Figure 4-16 depicts the total unemployment rate and the youth-specific unemployment rate for Alberta for the period 1976-98. The graph shows that between 1990 and 1993, a period of economic downturn, the unemployment rate in Alberta rose steadily from 7% in 1990 to a high of 9.7% in 1993. However, the unemployment rate then began to decline steadily from 8.6% in 1994 to a low of 5.7% in 1998. During the same two periods, the unemployment rate among youth (ages 15-24) followed a similar pattern, except that the youth unemployment rate, in general, was 60-65% higher than for the total population. It is worth noting that most of the refugees interviewed in this study arrived when the unemployment rate in Alberta was beginning to decline.
Census data show variable unemployment rates for the seven host communities. Table 4-17 provides information by host community on selected labour force indicators for 1996. The table shows that, in 1996, the unemployment rate was lowest (less than 7%) in Calgary and Lethbridge; higher in Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, and Grande Prairie (ranging from 7.7% to 8%); and highest in Edmonton (9.0%) and Red Deer (9.7%). These variations notwithstanding, it should be noted that the relationship between unemployment rate and well-being is far from perfect. With particular reference to refugees, their well-being tends to be conditioned not only by the unemployment rate, important as it may be, but also by many other factors.
Table 4-17 also shows that six centres reported the percentage employed in resource industries lower than the provincial average of 11.6%. The highest rate of resource industry employment is in Fort McMurray (30.5%), roughly three times the provincial average and four to six times greater than all the other centres. In the goods producing industries (manufacturing and construction), the percentage employed for Alberta is 15.2%. Except for Fort McMurray, Red Deer, and Grande Prairie, all the other centres are at or above this figure. The service industry captured the largest percentages of workers in all centres. About 8 out of 10 workers in Lethbridge and Edmonton reported work in this sector, compared to about 7 out of 10 in the other centres.
Table 4-18 shows the average household income for the seven host communities for 1991 (the latest year for which such information is available). It will be observed that the average yearly household income ranged from a high of $69,300 in Fort McMurray to a low of $40,034 in Medicine Hat. The comparable averages for the remaining centres, in descending order, are $52,152 for Calgary, $47,371 for Edmonton, $46,976 for Grande Prairie, $43,701 for Red Deer, and $42,179 for Lethbridge.
In terms of future financial prospects, the results of the opinion survey conducted in conjunction with the present study of refugees indicate that community residents were generally optimistic about the future. For example, 42% of the respondents "expect to be better off a year from now." The respondents from Fort McMurray, Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer are slightly more optimistic about the future than are the residents of the remaining centres. (see Table 3-13, Chapter 3).