The unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region saw the largest increase of any Ontario Region for the second month in a row, Four County Labor Market Planning Board officials say.
Article content
Last month, the region saw unemployment grow by 0.6 percentage points to 4.3 per cent. Despite these consecutive increases, the Stratford region remains far below the provincial rate of 7.5 per cent.
Both of these numbers, planning board officials noted, are unadjusted for seasonality.
Last month, the region’s population increased by 400, but the labor force size decreased by 300 to 172,800, meaning the number of people not participating in the workforce increased by 700. This brought the participation rate down 0.2 percentage points to 63.3 per cent. The region also saw a seasonal decrease of 1,300 full-time jobs and 200 part-time jobs.
The unemployment increase was driven by a drop in workers employed in the services-producing sector, which dropped by 3.7 per cent (3,800). In this sector, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the biggest percentage loss in September (18.9 per cent), representing a decrease of 1,800 jobs. This was followed by public administration, which decreased by 500 (10.6 per cent), and transportation and warehousing, which also lost 500 employees (10.4 per cent).
Article content
However, the services-producing sector did see increases in professional, scientific and technical services, which gained 1,000 jobs (7.3 per cent) while other services in this sector, except public administration, added 300 jobs (a 4.5 per cent increase).
In contrast, the number of goods producing-sector employees increased by 3.8 per cent (2,400). This was driven by an 8.3 per cent increase in utilities (900). This was followed by manufacturing, which increased by 5.6 per cent (1,100), and construction, which enjoyed a bump of 2.8 per cent (500) employees.
According to the board, current job postings for the region have continually increased since the pandemic. The number of job postings, which can be found at connect2jobs.casits at 2,120.
Nationally, Canada added 47,000 jobs last month, as unemployment dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 6.5 per cent. The participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 64.9 per cent. On a year-over-year basis, the overall participation rate was down 0.7 percentage points
In Ontario, the province added 43,000 jobs.
Share this article in your social network