rob norris

Provincial Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris


The job numbers from February has Saskatchewan holding a five per cent unemployment rate, tied for the lowest in the country, and the number of people working in our province increased by 61-hundred over last February, but it seems to be a different story in the southwest.

The number of people employed in the Swift Current/Moose Jaw region dropped by 31-hundred from February 2011 and 600 from January 2012, and the local jobless rate rose slightly from four per cent in January to 4.4 per cent.

Provincial Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris says he's been noticing a jump in local job vacancies on the government's own job-listings website.

“There have been job vacancies that have jumped up nearly 60 % on the saskjobs website year over year. We know that labour market is certainly a real pressure, in fact the unemployment rate for the southwest is 4.4 %, essentially what that says is that as long as people have the skills and are willing to work there are jobs for nearly everyone.”

Norris adds they've invested more than 2.8 billion dollars over four years in post-secondary education and made specific investments for First Nations and Metis learners to help fill those open jobs.

Interview with Rob Norris: