Bluster and blizzards took a toll on the employment scene in February.
The monthly job report came out Friday showing Canadian employers generated only 1,100 positions for the entire month. And they were all part-time.
Threats of tariffs are causing uncertainty and that has prompted business to change the way they see the future. That includes tightening up their payroll numbers.
Some employers, especially in central Canada, have issued lay-off notices while others are simply not hiring. And add to that the string of big winter storms that hit Central Canada resulting in plenty of lost hours meant February was not especially good nationally.
Here in Saskatchewan, we added 500 positions in February which is less than we have usually seen but, considering that is roughly half of the total for the country, we did reasonably well. But we also followed the pattern of trading full-time for part-time positions. The biggest gains were in the southeast, including Regina while the Yorkton-Melville region was the only one to post an actual decline in employment numbers.
