There are a range of metrics that economists watch to determine or assess the vibrancy of a marketplace or local economy. One of them is job creation and employment in general.
A key indicator on this metric is the monthly jobs report or labor force survey prepared by StatsCanada. The latest one came out Friday.
Now it is not the only measure as it can be volatile and often you can’t help but feel the numbers are massaged to fit a political narrative, especially in December – the number that will be used in the long-term to examine historical employment data.
And this past December the national figure was surprisingly strong, up 90,000 compared to just over 200,000 in the US where the economy is bubbling and its ten-times our size.Nonetheless, Canada reported strong results and Saskatchewan posted a gain of 4,000 jobs in the month leaving our unemployment rate under six-percent, second-lowest in the country. And our population continues to grow, faster than employers can create new positions but leaving those who are hiring with a bigger candidate pool
