The provincial government says the latest Statistics Canada labour force numbers display Saskatchewan’s bolstering economy. Using year-over-year figures from Statistics Canada, the provincial government has calculated an increase of 22,900 new jobs created in Saskatchewan since last July. Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison says these numbers mean Saskatchewan is leading the country in job growth, with a rate not seen for over 100 years. “Only two provinces in the entire country actually created jobs last month. In fact, Canada overall lost jobs on a net basis over the course of the last month. Saskatchewan actually created over 7,000 jobs in that same period of time, really speaking to a strong, growing economy.” He adds that both Saskatoon and Regina showed significant job growth over the course of the last year, at 8000 and 3000 jobs created, respectively.

The educational service sector, as well as the retail and wholesale trade sectors saw the most growth this year, with the agriculture sector close behind. “Last year we had nearly $20 billion dollars of exports going from the province, which is another record as far as agricultural exports. Very much a reflection of the fact that there’s more activity in the sector than there has ever been before.” He adds that the good news makes its way to nearly all employee demographics, as well. “Both full time and part time employment were up significantly. Full-time was up over 16,000. Part-time up over 6000. Female employment up over 10,000. Youth employment up over 8,000…Indigenous employment up over 2,400. Good news all the way around.”

Harrison states Saskatchewan also has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, down 0.1 per cent from last month to 5.4 per cent. The national average is 6.4 per cent. The StatsCan job numbers can be found here.