Saskatchewan employment numbers went down last month.
That is something of an unusual statement in the past few years as we have generally seen payrolls growing but October headed in a different direction. The numbers were not big – down about 2,000 compared to September which left us 5,000 ahead of this time a year ago.
About three-quarters of the decline was in the part-time category. And it all happened outside Saskatchewan’s two major cities which both posted gains.
StatsCan said the national picture was virtually unchanged as well which put us in the middle of the pack. However, Alberta turned in a strong performance, creating 15,000 new positions.
One take away from this month’s report is that Saskatchewan’s population is still growing. We were up about 2,000 new working-age residents in September. But since there were not enough new jobs to go around, our unemployment rose by a third of a point. We now stand at 6-percent which is the fourth-best record in the country.
