OTTAWA – Employment and unemployment rates were both up in Saskatchewan for the month of July.
Statistics Canada reported employment in the province rose by three-thousand from June.
On a yearly basis, employment is up 3.9 per cent, the highest increase among the provinces. StatsCan attributes that to more people looking for work.
Despite the increase in employment, the unemployment rate rose by three percentage points to 4.0 per cent.
While that is still the lowest rate in the country, 12 per cent of Aboriginals are still without jobs in Saskatchewan.
“We still have some work to do. No question about that, in terms of engaging Aboriginal people. We’ve been somewhat successful over the years, but we still have a long way to go,” said John Hopkins, CEO of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce.
Programs offered at the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies are helping to close the gap.
“We basically assist individuals in the aboriginal community, primarily, and also others that are interested in careers in the construction trades of industrial trades,” said Liana Wolf Ear, Office Manager at Construction Careers Regina, a branch of SIIT.
In Saskatoon, the unemployment rate held steady at 3.9 per cent.
Nationally, the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 per cent as the economy shed 39-thousand jobs.
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