Statistics Canada released the results of the latest Labour Force Survey, and it showed job numbers have been rising in southeast Saskatchewan. The unemployment rate in November for the whole economic region, which includes Regina, fell by a whole percentage point, and those gains were even larger when Regina was not factored into the equation. 

The Regina-Moose Mountain economic region, which includes Weyburn, Estevan and surrounding communities as well as Regina, saw the unemployment rate drop from 5.9 percent to 4.9 percent. Nearly all of those gains came outside of the capital city, however. 

With Regina not included in the numbers, the unemployment rate in southeast Saskatchewan declined from 5.6 percent to 4.0 percent. There were also 2,100 more people working in the southeast compared to November of 2020, and 1,200 more than March of 2020, showing things are back to where they were before the pandemic started, and in some cases, even better. 

The industries that saw the most gains in the Regina-Moose Mountain economic region were the oil, gas and mining industry, educational services and healthcare.

Provincially, the unemployment rate, when seasonally adjusted, declined from 6.2 percent to 5.2 percent. This was the third-lowest in the country, behind only Quebec and Manitoba. Nationally, the unemployment rate declined from 6.7 to 6.0 percent on the strength of the creation of 154,000 jobs.