It's an alarming stat that seems to be only growing by the month and it's starting to take it's toll on Albertans.

July employment numbers showed Alberta had lost 104,000 jobs in the last year and the unemployment rate has now risen to 8.6%

Foothills MP John Barlow says it's hard to watch the province go through these tough economic times.

"To see Alberta which was the economic engine of this country for a long time and to see it struggling to have a provincial and federal government's inaction or policies are just making matters worse so that's really tough to take," he says.

With Alberta's Oil & Gas industry being a driving force in world economies that tune has changed in the past two years as the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors has reported that 2016 will the worst year for drilling activity.

Barlow says it's not just the cost of a barrel of oil on the marketplace though.

"Can't blames this all on the price of oil, it's come around to 40 dollars a barrel but when you have a provincial government putting in a carbon tax and a federal government talking about a carbon tax and not taking action on pipelines is just making matters worse, basically telling investors we're closed for business."

When parliamentarians return for the fall session in Ottawa Barlow says, the unemployment rate will be a hot topic of discussion.

"When you have an industry that is responsible for such a significant portion of Canada's GDP but also the employment and we just saw that if you shut down Fort McMurray for 30 days that it impacts not only  jobs but it impacted Canada's economy and hopefully that's a message on just how important this industry is."

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