It's not hard to tell we are headed to a provincial election this year.
We are already beginning to see the two political front-running parties, the ruling Saskatchewan Party and Opposition New Democrats taking shots across each other's bows.
Last week was an example.
The NDP sent out a press release detailing Statistics Canada numbers regarding employment numbers in the province.
As Opposition are apt to do, especially ones preparing for an election in the fall, the NDP gleaned what negative numbers they could from the recent stats package.
In reality that is the role of Opposition. It rarely does anything to pat government on the back and simply say good job, although at times that is warranted.
In this case though it does appear the NDP release was something of a case of cherry-picking numbers for effect.
The NDP release noted, "according to Statistics Canada, there are 30,700 people who were unemployed and looking for work in Saskatchewan last month, which is an increase of 3,600 over the last year. While the unemployment rate dropped in most provinces, Saskatchewan experienced the second sharpest unemployment rate increase in Canada, second only to Prince Edward Island." (See related story this issue for more details.)
The numbers locally show a significant drop too.
Regions that experienced the most significant job losses over the last year included Yorkton-Melville losing 1,300 jobs, stated the release. Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit countered the overall Stats Canada numbers, suggesting the NDP were looking at only one side of the ledger. He said it reported only the job losses without factoring in new jobs created.
"They're picking out numbers on one side of the balance sheet," he said.
Ottenbreit said in Yorkton there are about 8,000 jobs, and if 900 jobs were lost that would be 12 per cent.
"That would be very noticeable," he said, adding, " I'd probably say 1500 jobs were created in the Yorkton-Melville area."
Likewise, Ottenbreit said when he checked the Sask Jobs website a couple of months ago there were 6,000 listings. "Today it's around 10,000," he added.
Ottenbreit said in Yorkton there are employers looking for some 500 employees.
"So there are some significant jobs (needs) in the Yorkton area," he said.
It is interesting how such diverse numbers can be brought forward to support different viewpoints on a single issue.
Of course that is the beauty, or perhaps the curse of statistics. They can generally be bent to make supportive of widely differing viewpoints.The old adage about looking at a situation of the glass being half empty, or half full, really hits home with a page of numbers. In most cases there are numbers such as 30,000 unemployed which look troubling.
For those people seeking a job is important, but in reality no economy ever enjoys 100 per cent employment. There are always those between jobs, those needing to upgrade education and skills, and those simply not seeking a job for some reason.
The difficult part is determining what number is 'normal' or acceptable, and what measures a government should take to help support maximum employment.
The acceptable balance becomes harder to determine in an election year when parties polarize views on every issue as generally wonderful if in government, and teetering on disaster if looked at by the Opposition.
The trouble the public will have in the coming months is figuring out where the greatest truth lies. That is the reality of politics in an election year, and job numbers are an early example of what is to come.
