A new report from Statistics Canada shows Saskatchewan is continuing to improve when it comes to employment.
According to Statistics Canada, employment in the province rose 0.4 per cent in February compared with January.
There were 592,000 people working during the month, with the economy adding 2,600 positions.
When comparing February 2023 with February 2022, roughly 9,400 new jobs were created in the province — an increase of 1.6 per cent.
“Our province is growing, the business community is growing but there is more work to do,” said MLA Ken Cheveldayoff on behalf of Jeremy Harrison, minister of trade and export development.
The seasonally adjusted provincial unemployment rate remained at 4.3 per cent, which is the second lowest among the provinces and below the national average of 5.0 per cent. February’s unemployment rate is down from 4.6 per cent in February 2022 and is unchanged when compared with January 2023.
Jason Childs, an economic professor at the University of Regina, said the numbers are a step in the right direction for Saskatchewan.
“A low unemployment rate means that everybody or almost everybody who wants a job is able to find one,” Childs explained. “And we see labour participation rates are quite high as well. So, it’s not that we’ve got a bunch of discouraged workers out there.”
For the Sask. NDP, however, the numbers are far from promising.
“Scott Moe still has the worst job creation record in Canada if you look at the big picture. He’s all hat and no cattle,” said Sask. NDP Leader Carla Beck. “Any premier with Moe’s record should be working around the clock until our economy is actually living up to its potential.”
According to the NDP, despite a small bump in employment last month, Saskatchewan remains in last when it comes to total job creation among the provinces and dead last in full-time job creation since Moe was appointed premier in February 2018.
“This Sask. Party government is taking one straight out of the Trump playbook and calling any facts they don’t like misinformation,” said NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon.
“Saskatchewan people need a government focused on delivering more jobs and bigger paycheques, not one focused on massaging the numbers to protect their reputations.”
Childs said one of the issues with a strong economy like Saskatchewan currently has is finding people to fill those jobs.
“One of the problems with an economy that’s running hot like the Saskatchewan economy is that it’s hard to add jobs because who are you going to fill them with?” Childs said. “If we don’t have people to work those jobs, it doesn’t matter. And that’s not going to show up in the new employment data.”
The province said one of the ways to combat this is to continue to push for more immigration — something Childs agrees with as one of the only solutions.
“International immigration, in particular, is going to have to be part of that answer if we’re going to continue to add jobs and not just add jobs but add employment and get people actually working.”