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About half of the plastic lawn chairs inside the temporary work agency were occupied, and most of the people looking for jobs Friday morning were filling out forms.

One man slumped in his chair, his head in his hands.

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Outside on Second Avenue, brothers David and Adrian Daniels were hoping to trade time and energy for money. Both men are currently incarcerated, finishing their sentences at a Saskatoon halfway house. Both are struggling.

“Nobody’s hiring … They’re too afraid to hire people. I think it’s because of the economy, for sure,” David said, adding that while temporary work agencies are beneficial, it’s been getting tougher to find any kind of work.

“I think this is a good spot for it, they get ’em going,” his brother chimed in, gesturing toward the agency. “But most people right now have it hard, street people, whoever.”

The Daniels brothers are not the only people in Saskatoon struggling to find steady work. Over the last year, no major Canadian city except Calgary — the nucleus of Alberta’s oil industry — has experienced a sharper rise in unemployment.