SASKATOON – Saskatchewan is no longer home to Canada’s lowest unemployment rate due to a slight increase reflected in a Statistics Canada’s March report released on Friday.
Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate rose from 5.9 per cent in February to 6.2 per cent in March, accounting for 2,100 more people who are looking for work. The rate is the highest the province has seen since May 1999, when it sat at 7.1 per cent.
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The national average is 7.1 per cent, which is slightly lower than the government body’s last report. Manitoba has the lowest rate at 6 per cent, while Newfoundland is the highest at 13.1 per cent.
Despite the increase, there is no need for the province’s residents to panic just yet, according to Kent Smith-Windsor, the executive director of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce. He said the chamber looks at “the employment growth number,” rather than the unemployment rate.
“We actually created 100 net new jobs in March,” said Smith-Windsor about employment growth in Saskatoon.
“The different would be is that we should have been creating 700.”
The city is down roughly 1,000 total jobs from this time last year, however Smith-Windsor said the chamber still sees growth in Saskatoon.
“That’s concerning, but we saw the same pattern last year,” said Smith-Windsor.
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Despite the lagging numbers, there are jobs open in Saskatoon. At a Smitty’s restaurant in the city’s eastside, supervisor Bonnie Bilsky said there are currently three posting, however 75 people have applied so far.
“This point and time, it’s probably the largest collection of resumes we’ve seen,” said Bilsky, during a busy brunch rush on a recent afternoon.
“Surprisingly we’ve actually noticed that we have people coming back from Alberta it seems that are starting to look for jobs here,” she added.
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