‘Reasons to be optimistic’: Saskatchewan employment numbers top in Canada

WATCH: New Stats Canada data reveals the province is leading the country in putting people to work.

Saskatchewan is leading the way when it comes to putting folks to work, based on recent Statistics Canada data.

The latest labour force numbers show that Saskatchewan continues to see record growth, with over 16,000 more jobs in the province compared to July 2024.

Saskatchewan was the only province to record an employment increase in July, according to Statistics Canada, with 3,500 people newly employed.

Jason Aebig, head of The Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, isn’t surprised by the numbers.

He attributes the growth to the province’s diverse economy — with oil, potash, agriculture and more.

“That means our risk is spread out across multiple sectors and industries. We’re not wholly dependent on, on one or two,” according to Aebig.

Saskatchewan’s grit is also part of the success.

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“Our business community remains very bullish on our economy. They continue to feel strongly that, there are reasons to be optimistic and there’s reasons to continue to pursue growth,” Aebig told CTV News.

Saskatchewan has the lowest unemployment rate amongst provinces at 5%, well below the national average of 6.9%.

“It says everything about the state of our economy and how positive, a lot of our employers are feeling. You see that translated in their hiring and the gobbling up of great skill talent,” he said.

Among the youngest cohort captured in the data, unemployment is much higher in the province. For boys and men ages 15 to 24, the unemployment rate is 13.8 per cent. For women and girls in that age group, it’s 11.3 per cent.

According to Hanif Hemani, the managing director of Express Employment Professionals in Saskatoon, we often compare ourselves to Alberta as our neighbouring province and see similarities in employment trends. Not this time.

“Typically, we mimic Alberta, and this is kind of the first time where we’ve actually diverged a little bit from Alberta. Alberta’s actually lost some jobs, and the unemployment rate went up,” Hemani said.

According to Hemani who has been in this role for 10 years, Saskatchewan is benefiting in a huge way from projects happening now.

“As a province of one million, we have some massive capital investment happening in our system in Saskatchewan. BHP is investing $7, $8 billion. They have a number of big capital investments. The construction industry in general, and a lot of these capital investments are driving, additional workforce and, and work needs,” he says.

His company helps link employees with jobs and says, newcomers are being well utilized.

“Unlike other provinces — and I’ll use Alberta again as an example — they’ve had a very difficult time placing a lot of their newcomers in. So, that has contributed to a lot of the unemployment rate, in Alberta. We’ve been actually pretty good at doing that here,” he says.

Indigenous people are also proving to be a valuable untapped workforce, adding to the positive numbers.

“It has been underdeveloped in years past. A lot of the mining sectors in the north see Indigenous people as the local population that they can tap into. That previously, perhaps, went sort of unrecognized,” Hemani said.

The jobs that are being seen are solid full-time positions, he says. They are entry or slightly above entry level positions, in large part.

Major year-over-year gains were reported for healthcare and social assistance, up 9,800 — an increase of 10.3 per cent.

Construction is up 6,500, an increase of 14.7 per cent and finance, insurance, real estate and leasing is up 3,500, an increase of 13.1 per cent.