Stratford-Bruce Peninsula economic region sees slight decrease in unemployment rate

The unemployment rate in the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region dipped slightly last month to 2.4 per cent, a decrease of 0.6 per cent, Four County Labor Market Planning Board officials say.

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This is the lowest rate the region has experienced since November 2019.

This decrease, officials added, is in stark contrast to the rest of the province, which has an overall rate of 6.9 per cent. This difference is also concerning to Dana Soucieexecutive director of the planning board.

“We are definitely suffering in our region. . . . Things haven’t really changed. … A low unemployment rate means that there aren’t a lot of people out of work so, in our situation, that is not a good thing because what we’re seeing is that we have a very high volume of job vacancies. When you have a high volume of job vacancies with a low participation rate in certain age brackets, that leaves you very vulnerable, with many vacancies to fill and no one to fill them,” she said.

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The region’s job vacancies have increased steadily since the pandemic, board officials said. The board takes postings from 25 different job boards every hour and, at the time of the June report, there were more than 2,500 jobs posted. However, there are many factors involved that need to be examined, Soucie noted, including population increases. In June, the region’s population increased by around 400 people, while the number of people not participating in the workforce increased by 300. Last month’s participation rate sat at 59.8 per cent.

“So you’re seeing the unemployment rate increase in Ontario and places like Toronto or other areas that are closer, but we’re very rural, so . . . What we’re seeing is we have an aging population. . . . Our population is growing (but) they’re not workers. We don’t know exactly what they are, but we’re assuming they’re retired,” she said.

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While Soucie is not as concerned about the region’s participation rate, which has remained steady, she is concerned it did not increase at the same pace as the local area’s population.

“That makes me think we have people moving in that are not working,” she said.

A low unemployment rate is also not automatically a good thing for all workers, Soucie said. She noted that job seekers who are still looking for work, despite the number of vacancies, typically face additional barriers.

“They may have disabilities. They may be the marginal sector. They may be immigrants who need some more support, that kind of thing. So those are all some factors that we look into when we’re doing our projects,” she said.

Breaking down the rate by sectors, the region’s goods-producing sector experienced a slight decrease in employees, with a 0.9 per cent drop, while forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas suffered the largest loss at 17.4 per cent. Utilities and agriculture, conversely, saw increases of 10 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively.

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The services-producing sector had an increase of 1.6 per cent while professional, scientific and technical services experienced a 21.1 per cent increase. However, business, building and other support services posted an 11.3 per cent decrease.

However, given these numbers represent month-to-month changes, they must be taken with a grain of salt, Soucie cautioned.

“So this is a snapshot of what’s happening month to month, but it’s like a roller-coaster. Things like agriculture, well, it’s going to go down in other months and up in some,” she said.

“If you cut your pie unevenly throughout your pie, and you’re only examining one piece, that’s not the whole pie.”

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