Self-Employment
Over the past decade, Saskatchewan has not followed the national trend toward self-employment. Saskatchewan’s self-employment dropped from 25% to 23%. This reflects a decline in the number of farmers. Non-agricultural self-employment has increased over the past decade.

Unemployment
Historically, Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate has been lower than the national rate, even though it tends to follow the national trend.

This low rate is an indicator of our province’s self-regulating environment, which is affected by people moving to other provinces and the high proportion of farmers.

In 2000, Saskatchewan had an unemployment rate of 5.2%, lower than the national average of 6.8%.

Saskatchewan’s youth population has had an almost consistently lower unemployment rate than the national average.

However, youth have the highest unemployment rate among the various age groups within our province. Factors which contribute to this include: a lesser attachment to the labour force, lack of experience, and the likelihood of having just completed schooling and being involved in searching for work.

Read on . . .