The latest Statistics Canada numbers released Friday show the Canadian economy added 104,000 jobs in December as the unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.0 per cent.

This is the third decline in the unemployment rate in fourth months and it is now edging closer to the record-low of 4.9 per cent reached in June and July.

StatsCan says the increase in employment was driven by an increase in full-time work. The number of employees in the private sector also increased last month, with job gains made across industries.

Wages continued to grow at a year-over-year pace and were up 5.1 per cent.

At 8.1 per cent, more employees were also absent due to illness which is up 6.8 per cent from the month prior and higher than the pre-pandemic average of 6.9 per cent (for December from 2017 to 2019) but below the record high of 10.0 per cent set in January 2022.

Meanwhile nearly one in ten workers had a hybrid work arrangement in December that is they usually worked partly at home and partly in locations other than home. The proportion of workers who usually work exclusively at home was little changed at 15.8 per cent in December (population aged 15 to 69, not seasonally adjusted).

The Government of Saskatchewan says employment numbers from StatsCan show Saskatchewan has added 7,700 jobs when compared to December of last year and month to month employment shows an increase of 4,200.

In a news reelease, Minister of Immigration and Career Training Jeremy Harrison said, “2022 was a very good year for Saskatchewan, with remarkable economic growth, record population gains, and thousands of more jobs to close the year.”

Saskatchewan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 per cent from 5.5 per cent when compared to December 2021.