While job numbers have remained the same over the past year, the province’s unemployment rate is below the national average.
April job numbers showed there were 560,100 people working in Saskatchewan — unchanged from 2016.
The unemployment rate was 6.2 per cent, below the 6.5 per cent national average.
Saskatchewan youth had an unemployment rate of 10.4 per cent last month, which was the second lowest among provinces. The national youth deployment rate was 11.7 per cent.
“We are still feeling the impact of low resource prices, but job numbers are steady with last year’s which is good news,” Economy Minister Jeremy Harrison said in a news release. “Steady job numbers along with recent positive economic indicators including wholesale trade, retail sales and manufacturing sales are on the upswing which is definitely encouraging.”
Off-reserve aboriginal employment was up 9.2 per cent for 10 consecutive months of year-over-year and aboriginal youth employment was up 2.5 per cent for 12 consecutive months when comparing last year’s numbers.