After seeing one of the highest unemployment rates since January 2021 this past February, southeast Saskatchewan saw a boost in employment and a drop in the unemployment rate in March. The latest data showed the areas of the Regina-Moose Mountain Economic Region outside of Regina had an unemployment rate of 6.7 percent last month. This came about with 1600 more people working in the region.  

The data for the region overall, including Regina, did show an increase in the unemployment rate overall, from 5.5 to 6.0 percent, but this was due solely to the job losses in Regina, where there were 800 fewer people employed, and another 600 who were part of the labour force but not actively employed.  

The numbers for the southeast outside of Regina, which includes Estevan and Weyburn, bucked the trend found in the rest of the province, and much of the country. Provincially the unemployment rate, adjusted for seasonality, went from 5.0 percent to 5.4 percent. This was due to 4000 fewer people working in Saskatchewan. Despite the change, though, Saskatchewan still maintained the third-lowest unemployment rate in the country, behind Manitoba and Quebec.  

Nationally, the unemployment rate was up as well. It went from 5.8 to 6.1 percent, the largest one-month increase in the unemployment rate since the summer of 2022. Statistics Canada said the increase was driven primarily by job losses in accommodation and food services, as well as an increase of 60,000 people who were looking for work or were temporarily laid off.  

The news of the latest job numbers did see the Canadian dollar drop by nearly half a cent compared to the U.S. dollar when the markets opened but had gained much of that back by noon.