Even the Carillon is hiring!

Many people are moving to Saskatchewan now

Regina’s job market is the most attractive in the country

Article: Taylor Rattray – Contributor

[dropcaps round=”no”]T[/dropcaps]he BMO labour market report recently named Regina’s job market the ‘most attractive in Canada’, followed by Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon. To develop this rating, the Bank of Montreal looked at the unemployment rates, average levels of income, competitive tax rates, job prospects, and housing prices of nineteen cities across Canada. In particular, Regina’s affordable housing is what pulled it ahead of the city of Calgary.

The median employment income in Regina is $70,500, placing Regina third behind Ottawa and Calgary. Its jobless rate is the lowest in Canada at 3.5 per cent, followed by Saskatoon and Edmonton. Regina’s job growth rate is 6.9 per cent, second to Saskatoon. The income tax rate in Regina is 13 per cent and the combined sales tax is 10 per cent, but it’s Regina’s lowest average house price in the country, at $311,400, that named our job market ‘most attractive’ in the country.

Dwight Kosior, of Dwight Kosior Financial, believes this is an accurate ranking. In particular he claims, “I think the job market is still quite positive for the trades, and all those jobs are related to the growth of what’s happening in the province.”

In Kosior’s opinion, Regina’s positive job market is due to the “…expansion in the economy, [driven by] the trades and a resource boom in the last decade”.

As well, “lots of investment money has moved into the province during the expansion.” This is all very good news for a province that is quite resource rich.

Kosior believes the situation will continue, “but maybe not quite as robust as two or three years ago…it’s still got a lot of positive traction to it, but it will slow a little…there’s still lots of need for people; we are actually still short of people”.

Recently, the amount of Canadians moving from one province to the next is at the highest level it’s been in almost 25 years. Migrants from all over the country are headed towards Alberta and Saskatchewan in particular. This shows that Canadian resources are moving where they are needed, giving the job force what it needs. Saskatchewan Immigration is seeking not only in-country workers, but also overseas job seekers to fill the demand for workers. All in all, the booming job market in the province is making Saskatchewan what a recent Statistic’s Canada report calls, ‘the land of opportunity’.

For a province whose employment sector was once one of the lowest in Canada, Saskatchewan and its capital city, Regina, is now the place to go for above-average job opportunities.

[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Evan Radford[/button]