The latest employment numbers from Statistics Canada don’t necessarily paint the rosiest picture but show long term growth not only in Saskatchewan but the southeast corner of the province.

The Labour Force Survey for July, which was released Friday, show the province lost 10,900 full-time jobs while gaining 8,800 part-time positions. Overall, it was a net decline of 2,200 people working in the province. This resulted in the unemployment rate increasing from 5.1 percent in June to 5.5 percent in July. 

While the increase from month to month was significant, it was still an improvement from where things were in 2018. The unemployment rate was down from 6.5 percent in July of 2018. There were also more people working when compared to last year, with 6,300 more jobs in the private sector.

Here in southeast Saskatchewan, the unemployment rate also went up. It saw an increase from 4.6 percent to 5.2 percent as the region saw 2300 fewer people working in July when compared to June. Like the rest of the province, though, things were better than they were 12 months prior.

The unemployment rate falls in line with what was seen in the rest of the country. Overall, there were 24,200 jobs lost in July. This caused the unemployment rate to increase from 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent.

Statistics Canada releases the Labour Force Survey on a monthly basis, and generally release the data on the first Friday of each month.