Brantford-Brant’s unemployment rate increased last month, despite adding several hundred jobs, but it remains one of the lowest in the province.
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November’s local jobless climbed to 4.2 per cent, up from 4.1 per cent the previous month, even though employment grew by an estimated 500 people, the latest labor force survey from Statistics Canada showed.
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That increase in jobs caused the local employment rate to improve slightly to 63.3 per cent.
Canada continues to add jobs but that hasn’t kept up with the country’s population growth. November saw employment increase by 25,000 jobs across Canada, but the unemployment rate still increased by 0.1 percentage points to 5.8 per cent due to 78,000 working age people joining the labor pool.
Ontario’s unemployment rate fell by 0.1 per cent to 6.1 per cent.
The Brantford area continues to boast the lowest jobless rate compared to neighboring communities, and is the second lowest in the province, second only to Peterborough’s impressive 2.3 per cent.
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Yet, while the local employment numbers have been trending upward over the last few months, there is still room for improvement, said Danette Dalton, executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie.
“Compared to this time last year, some of our local job numbers look better, but others don’t, frankly,” said Dalton. “Our unemployment rate in November 2022 was worse at 5.9 per cent but more people were participating in the labor force and were employed. Looking just at the jobless rate doesn’t tell the whole story.”
Dalton said the employment rate a year ago was almost three per cent higher than last month, and there were fewer people described as “not in the labor force: neither employed nor unemployed.”
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“But 2022 saw incredible, hard-to-beat job growth in our area, to put it in perspective,” said Dalton. “The 2023 year hasn’t seen as many gains in employment but the numbers have been improving recently and we hope that continues into next year.”
Retail representative was the No. 1 job advertised in November on Grand Erie Jobs, the job board operated by the Workforce Planning Board.
Close to 200 of the 1,800 jobs were in retail, while another 100 were for shelf stockists and order fillers. Other top jobs included home support workers and material handlers.
The Workforce Planning Board is one of 26 non-profit organizations in Ontario that play a leadership role in labor force planning. The board is funded, in part, by the provincial and federal governments.
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