While many provinces saw a decline in people working in May, Saskatchewan saw an increase in people working, as 4,100 more people were working in May when compared to April. The increase in employment of 0.7 percent was the largest in the country.  The job creation bucked the national trend, as overall in Canada 68,000 jobs were lost with the unemployment rate moving to 8.2 percent from 8.1. 

The increase in people working resulted in the unemployment rate in Saskatchewan moving from 6.6 percent to 6.3 percent. The jobs were evenly split between full-time and part-time as well.  

For the purposes of the labour force survey from Statistics Canada, the province is broken up into a number of economic regions. When looking at the specific areas, the drop in the unemployment rate was across nearly all of Saskatchewan, with the Yorkton-Melville area leading the way. There, the unemployment rate fell from 5.1 to 4.9 percent. The next lowest was the Prince Albert and North region, where the rate was 6.5 percent. In the Regina-Moose Mountain area, the unemployment rate fell from 8.8 percent to 7.9, and in the Saskatoon-Biggar area, it went from 8.1 to 7.6.  

The only part of the province where the unemployment rate went up was in the Swift Current-Moose Jaw area, where it increased from 6.7 to 7.2 percent. 

"May's job numbers show that Saskatchewan is leading Canada's economic recovery," Immigration and Career Training Minister Jeremy Harrison said. "Saskatchewan employers are hiring as shown by over 7,500 jobs posted currently on Saskjobs.ca, and recent private-sector investments, worth billions of dollars, will create thousands of more good jobs and opportunities for Saskatchewan people in the months and years ahead." 

With the increase in employment, the provincial government touts that Saskatchewan has recovered 98.4 percent of it’s pre-COVID employment level, the fourth-best job recovery in the country and ahead of the national recovery rate.