About 2,300 more Saskatchewan people were working in February than January, continuing a plodding jobs recovery in the province.
But the unemployment rate ticked up ever so slightly — from 7.2 per cent to 7.3 per cent — as 3,100 Saskatchewan people returned to the labour force looking for work. Saskatchewan lost its place as the province with the lowest unemployment rate, as Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia surpassed it with stronger job growth.
The data comes from Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey, which was published on Friday and covers the period Feb. 14 to 20, as the winter coronavirus surge was slowly receding but public health restrictions remained in effect.
The February numbers match trends from the month before , when Saskatchewan added 2,200 more jobs. All of February’s net job creation came in full-time work, while part-time jobs dipped a mere 200 positions.
But Saskatchewan remains below its employment total from the same time last year, just before COVID-19 arrived in the province. There are still 23,000 fewer people working in Saskatchewan, compared to February 2020.
The recovery last month was stronger in goods producing sectors — like construction and manufacturing — than in service industries. But accommodation and food services, once the hardest hit subsector of all, did manage to add 1,400 jobs in February. It remains 8,100 jobs behind its total from February 2020.
That leaves the information, culture and recreation industries as the worst laggard, with 8,400 fewer jobs year-on-year. That’s a 37.8 per cent loss.
Saskatchewan’s youth unemployment improved somewhat, though it remains stubbornly high at 14.4 per cent. The unemployment rate for men over 25 is now slightly lower than that for women, reversing a previous trend. An increase in female job seekers was mainly responsible.