Relocation News: Saskatchewan jobs decline, StatsCan says

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Mar 25, 2006, 4:05:02 PM3/25/06

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There were fewer jobs in Saskatchewan last month compared to a year
earlier - a trend running counter to the rest of the country,
Statistics Canada says.

According to federal agency's February labour force survey, there were
471,900 people working in Saskatchewan in February, a drop of about
4,400 from the same period in 2005. Saskatchewan's February
unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent, the worst of the four Western
provinces. In Manitoba, it was 4.7 per cent. In Alberta it was 3.2 per
cent, while in B.C. it was 5.2 per cent. All figures are seasonally
unadjusted.

It's the sixth straight month of job losses in this province.

The report showed that across Canada, about 270,000 more people got
jobs between February 2005 and February 2006.

Doug Elliott, the Regina-based publisher of Sask Trends Monitor, said
the latest job numbers are cause for concern.

"If we can't generate employment during these kinds of times, what's
going to happen when things turn down?" Saskatchewan has benefited from
an oil boom that had added hundreds of millions of dollars to
government coffers and turned it into a "have" province.

However, that prosperity hasn't translated into more jobs in recent
months. Elliott said because the economy is doing so well, the loss of
jobs is probably a sign that there aren't enough workers here, rather
than a lack of opportunities. Industry Minister Eric Cline said job
picture is more complicated than the bare numbers suggest and said some
of the news is good.

"What we seem to be seeing, I think, is a movement of people from the
lower-paying, part-time, less-skilled jobs in the service industry to
more jobs in things like manufacturing, construction, transportation,
oil and gas and mining," he said.

Cline said as people move on to better paying jobs, the government
needs to attract others to take their place.

Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall said every other province in
Western Canada is facing labour shortage, yet unlike Saskatchewan,
they're adding jobs. "I don't think you can equate job loss to the
labour shortage," he said.

Wall said the job situation is the biggest issue facing the province
right now and his party will focus on it when politicians return to the
legislature next week.