Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate fell dramatically in January. At least that’s what the latest jobs report suggests.
The monthly Labour Force Survey showed Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate fell by six-tenths of a point in January compared to December. That gave us the lowest unemployment rate among the provinces.
What drove the change was a significant reduction in our workforce. It fell more than 6,000 during that month. StatsCanada’s report does not offer an explanation for the decline and it is hard to figure it out using other data in the report.
A declining workforce or labor pool is usually the result of one of two things: people moving out of the province so the universe of working-aged people declines or people simply dropped out, preferring to sit at home rather than seek or hold employment.
On the first one – people moving out – does not fit the report’s other data which say Saskatchewan’s working-age population actually grew by 1,400 in January.
So that leaves us with the questionable suggestion that 6,000 people – roughly the working population of a city the size of Estevan – just dropped out in a single month.
