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The Stratford area’s unemployment rate has dipped below three per cent for the first time since 2019, new figures released by Statistics Canada show.
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According to the federal agency’s latest monthly labor force survey, the unemployment rate in the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula region fell to 2.8 per cent last month, down slightly from three per cent in October. That figure, a three-month moving average unadjusted for seasonality, began returning to pre-pandemic levels in the summer and continues to be the lowest in Ontario.
An unemployment rate below three per cent in the region, which includes Perth, Huron, Bruce and Gray counties, is not unprecedented. Two years ago it reached 2.4 per cent in November before rising slightly to 2.7 per cent in December. Last November, in the midst of tighter public-health restrictions due to the pandemic, the area’s unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent.
“The persistently low local unemployment rate continues to parallel what we saw before the pandemic,” said Gemma Mendez-Smith, the executive director of the Four County Labor Market Planning Board. “This reinforces the need to focus on retaining current employees and encouraging those who live locally but are not currently working to return to the labor force where possible.”
Overall the number of jobs in the region – about 162,200 – remained unchanged for the third straight month, but the local labor force has shrunk by about 1,500 workers compared to this time last year, Statistics Canada’s numbers show. Paired with the low unemployment rate, that’s cause for concern, Mendez-Smith said, especially because the gradual removal of government supports has so far not resulted in labor force growth as expected.
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“I think the piece that we need to keep looking at would be… to see if our labor market continues to shrink,” she said. “That would be on the top of the list because we know that will present significant issues for employers.”
More than 2,200 positions were available on the labor board’s online job portal on Friday. The length of time many jobs have been listed is “significantly longer” than the labor board has seen in the past, Mendez Smith said.
Ontario’s jobless rate last month also fell in October, for the sixth straight month, to 6.4 per cent, its lowest level since February 2020, the month before the pandemic was declared.
The province saw gains in full-time work last month, and across various employment sectors including health care and social assistance, retail, construction, finance and real estate.
The national unemployment rate fell by nearly one point in November, 0.7 per cent, its largest decline since last March, and is approaching pre-pandemic levels, Statistics Canada reported.
Before COVID-19 struck, the national rate hit a record-low 5.4 per cent in May 2019 and stood at 5.7 per cent in February 2020, weeks before the pandemic was declared.
-With files from Postmedia News