Despite all the talk of economic challenges related to tariffs imposed by our major trading partners, Saskatchewan employers are continuing to expand their payrolls.
The latest job numbers show the province added 2,300 new jobs in November. Employers generated 2,900 full-time spots while eliminating 600 part-time positions. That meant payrolls grew by 16,000 in the past year.
The province continues to see population growth with the labor pool – that’s people over the age of 15 who are available and willing to work – increasing by 3,200.
In other words, more people see Saskatchewan as a place to find employment opportunity and that pool is growing faster than employers can create new spaces. As a result, the unemployment rate rose slightly – by one-tenth of a point to 5.6-percent which is still second-lowest in the country behind Quebec.
The bulk of the job creation was centred in the two major cities. Regina saw gains of nearly six-percent in the past year while Saskatoon was ahead by more than two percentage points. The Yorkton-Melville corridor also saw employment gains last month.
