Fourth-year University of Saskatchewan agribusiness student Courtney Fyke already has a job lined up for next month, at Lallemand Plant Care.
“It’s very nice. It takes a lot of stress off when you’re going through the school year,” she said. “There’s actually a lot of jobs that didn’t seem super hard to find anything even with the pandemic.”
Director of teaching and learning Nancy Turner says students coming out of university this year face less of an uphill battle than in past years to find work in their field.
The past two graduating classes faced shutdowns, restrictions and other factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“We are seeing that there are more job opportunities available in Saskatchewan, the overall unemployment rate is lowered. The technical sectors are all in demand and jobs are available.”
According to Turner, engineering and healthcare are other fields in demand. The university’s job posting website, which employers use to find future employees, has more than 250 job postings on it. Last year, it had 136 at this time.
Turner says grads are looking for more flexibility and more hybrid opportunities.
Employment agency SaskAbilities Partners in Employment says even with more jobs available, students might still have to adapt.
“We’ve never come out of a pandemic before,” said senior supervisor Bonnie Grove.
Grove says students might not be able to get what they want right away and should be open to part-time employment to help get their foot in the door, particularly for those in the hospitality and retail fields.
“Even though it may look like 20 hours a week or 30 hours a week to start. We’re definitely finding that in those areas. There’s lots and lots of opportunity for diversifying your experience.”
Grove says she has every reason to be optimistic the marketplace will continue to open up, creating more opportunities for the grad class of 2023.