Canada's unemployment rate rose to 6.4 per cent in July -- up a fraction, while our province saw growth.

And for the second consecutive month, employment in Saskatchewan went up 2,000 or 1.5 percent, bringing total gains since the start of the year to 11,000 or 2.3 percent.

Saskatchewan Party Economic Development Critic Lyle Stewart says it's good that more jobs were created, however cautions that while it's good to see numbers rise, we're still well below the Western and Canadian averages.

Stewart says he's concerned that the latest job numbers show a drop in the working aged population that may jeopardize the sustainability of that increase.

He says between July 2005 and July 2006, that population fell from 748,000 to 745,900.