Graph: The number of employment-insurance beneficiaries in rural and small-town Alberta declined 2.2 per cent in August while the national rural total rose 1.3 per cent, according to Statistics Canada data that are not adjusted for seasonal patterns. Rural Alberta Report

The number of people receiving employment insurance in rural and small-town Alberta fell 2.2 per cent in August from the previous month, moving in the opposite direction from the national rural total.

Statistics Canada’s rural employment-insurance dashboard, updated Tuesday, showed a 1.3 per cent month-over-month increase across rural and small-town Canada.

Alberta recorded the third-largest percentage decline among the provinces and territories highlighted by the agency. Rural and small-town Yukon fell 12.5 per cent and Prince Edward Island declined 12 per cent.

At the other end of the range, Nova Scotia rose 5.9 per cent, Quebec increased 4.8 per cent and Newfoundland and Labrador gained 4.5 per cent.

The figures are not adjusted for seasonality, an important limitation for rural Alberta. Farm, construction, tourism and other seasonal work can change sharply through the year, and a month-to-month comparison can reflect those patterns.

A lower beneficiary count is not the same as a direct measure of job growth. Statistics Canada notes that the number can change when people begin receiving benefits, return to work, exhaust their entitlement or stop receiving benefits for another reason.

The dashboard defines a beneficiary as a person receiving employment-insurance benefits during the Labour Force Survey reference week, usually the week that includes the 15th day of the month.

Rural and small-town areas are communities outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. That means the Alberta figure is a broad provincial rural measure rather than a count for a specific municipality such as Stettler, Hanna or Castor.

The August result follows unusually large national rural swings earlier in the year. Rural and small-town beneficiaries across Canada rose 30.9 per cent in July after dropping 22.6 per cent in May. The month-to-month volatility reinforces the need to read a single release alongside longer trends and other labour-market measures.

Statistics Canada did not identify Alberta among the jurisdictions with the largest year-over-year changes in August. British Columbia posted the largest provincial annual increase among those highlighted, at seven per cent, while several jurisdictions recorded declines.