There are more people working in Saskatchewan than ever before. That is the message which the most recently released job numbers for January gives, which continues year over year increases.
There were 517,400 people working in Saskatchewan in January, an increase of 7,400 over January of 2010 and a record for the month of January. Saskatchewan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent ranks second lowest in Canada (behind Manitoba), well below the national average of 7.8 per cent.
While there are increases in the number of people working in the province overall, Cam Broten, critic for Advanced Education, Employment, and Immigration for the NDP, says that the overall picture has some negatives as well.
"We know in areas where there is positive news that is a good thing and we have to be happy about that, but it is also important not to lose sight of the fact that there are over 30,000 individuals who are unemployed and looking for work in the province, and we see that year over year there is an increase of 3,600 people looking for work," Broten notes
Broten says that while the job numbers overall have seen an increase, not all areas of the province have had increases in the number of jobs.
He says the Yorkton-Melville area has had a decrease of 1,300 jobs overall.
He notes that decreases in the resource, agricultural and education sectors represented the majority of the job losses in the province.
He also says the increase in the number of people looking for work has seen the province have the second highest unemployment rate increase in the country.
Helping those who are unemployed is some-thing Broten believes needs more emphasis. In particular, he says that two recently cut programs would benefit those looking for work.
"Over the course of the past year the government cut two important programs that really were helping people who were unemployed and looking for work. One was called the JobStart Future Skills Program, and another was called the Aboriginal Employment Develop-ment Program. Both of these programs had a big role in helping those looking for work get into jobs and also help employers bring people on into their workplace," Broten emphasizes.
Increases in food bank usage in the province and a lack of affordable housing are two issues which Broten sees as being as important as the job numbers overall, as they indicate the quality of life in the province overall.
