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Poor job performance over the first half of 2015 means Saskatoon will fall short of its goal of creating 8,000 new jobs.
According to the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce’s executive director Kent Smith-Windsor, the region gained 800 jobs in August, but the city is still about 400 jobs below what it created in 2014.
“Our target of 8,000 jobs a year is based on trying to create career opportunities in Saskatoon sufficient to deal with all the graduates from post-secondary institutions or Grade 12 graduates and we know that’s a very aggressive target,” Smith-Windsor said.
“It doesn’t mean we’re in disastrous shape or anything like that, it means the job creation rate is unlikely to be replicated in 2015.”
“It doesn’t mean we’re in disastrous shape or anything like that, it means the job creation rate is unlikely to be replicated in 2015.”
Beside job creation, Saskatoon continues to show elements of a strong economy ranking 10th in building permits per capita across Canada. Smith-Windsor said Saskatoon just isn’t performing like it did in the past four to five years.
“Over the last five years we’ve actually achieved (the job target) 60 per cent of the time so we’re coming off five years of employment growth but we’re seeing a slowdown.”
The chamber said investments from businesses in terms of expansion is what drives new job creation, and while businesses may not be investing at the same rate as they have in the past, the future looks bright, as the chamber predicts a two per cent growth in Saskatoon’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“For business to invest they need to see a runway of customers — businesses are clearly seeing the market is not as fast as it was over the past four to five years,” Smith-Windsor said.
