Statistics Canada released their Labour Force Survey this past Friday, which revealed that women aged 55-64 were employed in February of 2023 in record numbers.

Andrew Fields, Analyst with the Labor Force Survey at Statistics Canada, said that in terms of Saskatchewan, "The employment rate for women aged 55 to 64 in Saskatchewan was 64.2% in February of 2023. That was higher than the national average of 60.9%." 

Fields said that Ontario was slightly below the national average at 60.6%, and quite a bit below Saskatchewan. Alberta had the highest rate at 67.3%, and Newfoundland had the lowest rate at 45.3%. 

Over six in 10 women in the 55-64 age group, he said, were employed in February. "That was up from a bit under six and 10 the previous month. We've been seeing that trend up since the Fall of last year." 

Some of the reasons for this trend, he said, include financial considerations, "By necessity, in other words, because they have bills to pay and they need to work, or by choice." 

"About 60% of the women are doing so out of necessity because they need the money, the other 40% are doing so by choice, so it's not necessarily because they need money, but we do see in general in the labor market a lot of job vacancies."

Through the consumer price index, he said they see that prices are very high, so affordability might be a larger issue for many people, driving them into the labour force to meet higher prices.

As well, he explained that "Some people are in better health than they were 30 years ago. So, if you're in your early 60's, you may be able to work longer, you may also be in a position that's less physically demanding. People also tend to have higher education now than 30 years ago, so they tend to have jobs that are less physically demanding."