REGINA — Saskatchewan’s labour market is showing signs of cooling, with provincial unemployment climbing to 6.1 per cent in May 2026 as long-term job growth hits a standstill.
According to the latest unadjusted Labour Force Survey data from Statistics Canada, released June 5, the province added 4,400 jobs month over month, bringing total employment to 615,300. However, the broader 12-month picture reveals a flatlining job market, with the province holding just 800 more jobs than it did in May 2025.
The upward trend in joblessness comes amid a significant multi-month contraction from the hiring peaks established late last year. Total unadjusted employment in Saskatchewan has dropped by 5,800 workers since November 2025, when employment sat at 621,100.
Outside of the severe economic disruptions seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, a sustained slide of this magnitude is rare for the province. The last time Saskatchewan experienced a comparable non-pandemic employment drop over a similar period was in September 2022, when the province shed 5,500 jobs, following a decline of 5,400 jobs in January 2020.
The seasonality factor
When tracking employment metrics, statistics can vary significantly depending on whether the data is adjusted for seasonality. The data presented for Saskatchewan's individual economic regions is entirely unadjusted for seasonality. Unadjusted data reflects the number of people employed or unemployed during the survey period. This reflects real-world seasonal hiring surges, such as the predictable influx of jobs in agriculture, construction and tourism during Saskatchewan's spring and summer months.
In contrast, the seasonally adjusted model uses historical trends to mathematically strip away those regular, calendar-driven fluctuations. Because hiring always climbs in the spring and declines in the winter, economists use seasonal adjustments to look past the regular noise of the changing seasons and view the underlying, long-term health of the economy.
While the raw data captured a temporary spring hiring bump of 4,400 jobs from April to May, the underlying trends in both models point toward an economic deceleration. Saskatchewan's overall unadjusted labour force stands at 655,400 people, with 40,100 actively looking for work, leaving the provincial participation rate at 67.0 per cent. The current unadjusted unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent is now well above the post-pandemic low of 3.9 per cent recorded in November 2022. It is steadily creeping toward the province's 10-year non-pandemic high of 6.9 per cent, which was reached in March 2017.
Unadjusted regional breakdowns
Because regional data is unadjusted, local figures heavily reflect the onset of seasonal shifts across Saskatchewan's economic areas. The Prince Albert and Northern economic region currently reports the highest unadjusted unemployment rate in the province at 7.1 per cent. This marks a sharp contrast from its historical non-pandemic low of 2.8 per cent achieved in November 2023. Meanwhile, joblessness in the Swift Current-Moose Jaw economic region stands at 6.8 per cent, up significantly from the record unadjusted low of 2.4 per cent recorded in July 2025.
Other areas of the province are tracking closer to or below the provincial average. The Saskatoon-Biggar region closely mirrors the baseline, reporting an unadjusted unemployment rate of 6.2 per cent, compared with its lowest non-pandemic rate over the past decade of 3.8 per cent in late 2022. The capital region is outperforming the provincial average, with Regina-Moose Mountain showing an unadjusted unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent, compared with its strongest non-pandemic performance of 3.6 per cent in November 2022. Finally, the Yorkton-Melville region continues to lead the province with the lowest unadjusted unemployment rate at 4.9 per cent. The region holds the record for the lowest unadjusted jobless rate in recent provincial history, which dropped to 2.2 per cent in May 2025.
