More than 4,000 job vacancies currently on provincial job board
Saskatchewan's employment growth outpaced all other provinces in 2009, despite the global recession, according to the provincial government.
Employment in the province grew by an average of 1.5 per cent, higher than any other province and significantly higher than the national average, which shrank by 1.6 per cent.
There were 518,600 people working in the province in December 2009, an increase of 2,600 from December 2008.
"While 2009 was a challenging year for workers and employers across North America, Saskatchewan is well-placed to lead Canada in the recovery," said Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris. "Our population has grown, our economy has created jobs and our workers are earning more than ever."
The province's job board, SaskJobs.ca, also saw record traffic in 2009 with more than 6.9 million visitors browsing 102,000 posted jobs. This is a 60-per-cent increase in traffic from the 4.3 million visits in 2008.
Of the visitors in 2009, 5,5 million were from inside the province, 1.2 million were from other provinces and territories (456,000 from Ontario alone) and 276,000 came from outside Canada.
"While we saw record interest in SaskJobs last year, we know that some of that activity is related to layoffs and economic challenges within our own borders," said Norris. "SaskJobs is a vital tool for our rapid response teams and for good reason - with more than 100,000 jobs posted in 2009, the site is a key resource for workers."
There are still more than 4,000 vacancies posted on the website.
