It's a bit of a "mixed bag" when it comes to available jobs and who's out there looking for jobs.

That according to Paul Jacques, an Employment Councillor at the Lacombe and District Employment Centre.

He does caution some of the recent figures that show a sizeable drop in the unemployment rate in Alberta are a bit misleading in terms of how the province looks at part and full time equivalent jobs.

“So there’s lots of people that we know, and we’ve seen it over the last 2-3 years, they really are now working instead of just one part time job as a member of an income earning team, a couple or on their own, now they are working 2 or 3 part time jobs, this is a common thing now, so that’s considered a full time equivalent in hours”.

Jacques says its good people are working, but disturbing they can't make a living wage and are more often than not logging a lot more hours than one full time job and losing quality of life.

He adds they are seeing a lot more of the 40+ job seeker whose skill levels have not kept pace in a shrinking job market or who may now face some physical limitations.

The oil and gas and manufacturing industries continue to employ the most people in our province, making up at least 25% of the work, despite the recent slow-down.

Jacques says while there's been some uptake as of late, the up and down ongoing volatility in the industry is as prevalent as it has ever been.

“We’re not getting a lot of oil and gas people into the centre here, we think that they are finding work or getting work when they are looking for work in that industry.  Having said that when it comes to some of the work in that area, it seems like a lot of it is contractual, or short term, or temporary in nature”.

Jacques says while the oil and gas industry is still sizeable, it's not maintaining the growth, it's staying the same or shrinking.

Next to oil and gas and manufacturing, Jacques says the service and sales industries are the next largest employers.