Sask. sees large jump in employment

Employment increased in Saskatchewan for the second month in a row, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

The province saw a 9,100-person jump in employment in October, meaning there were 605,300 people employed, according to the data.

Saskatchewan's unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 per cent in October the lowest among provinces from 4.9 per cent the month before. The national average was 5.7 per cent.

The only areas with lower unemployment were Yukon (four per cent) and the Northwest Territories (2.4 per cent).Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest unemployment rate (10 per cent).

Jeremy Harrison, the provincial minister of immigration and career training, saidit's hard to pin down which sectors are seeing the bulk of increases.

"In a general sense, you are seeing growth across the board," Harrison said outside of the Sask Jobs building in Regina on Friday.

According to a news release from the government, year-over-year gains were seen in education, scientific and technical services, and wholesale and retail trade.

The minister added that the government worked hard on is Indigenous employment in the province, giving credit to various Indigenous training institutions.

Year-over-year data from the Saskatchewan Bureau of Statistics indicates off-reserve Indigenous employment grew by 500 after five months of year-over-year decreases.

"There's definitely a lot more work to be done, but that's something that we're going to continue working on to make sure that we see that number going upwards," said Harrison.

The latest Statistics Canada labour force survey found thatover the last four weeks, one in three Canadians lived in a household experiencing financial difficulties "in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing and other necessary expenses."

Regina and Saskatoon both ranked higher than the national average when it comes to difficulty meeting financial needs.

Saskatchewan currently has the lowest minimum wage in Canadaat $14 per hour. That is set to increase to $15 per hour in October2024.

"We committed a couple of years ago to increasing the minimum wage over time and that's going to be a continuing part of our plan going forward," said Harrison.

"I think the the opportunities that exist here are are real though and the biggest thing that we're hearing from employers are labour market shortages, and having more jobs available than people available to fill those jobs."