In May, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region, which includes the Municipality of Meaford, dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 3.9%. The Region continue to sit at the second lowest unemployment rate in the province. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points this month to 7.9%, both unadjusted for seasonality.
In May, the Region’s overall population increased by +400 whereas the labour force size grew by 1,300 people, resulting in the number of people not in the labour force in the Region to drop by 1,000. This pushed the Region’s participation rate up 0.4 percentage points to 59.1%. In addition, the Region experienced a significant increase of 1,700 people in overall employment, with approximately +2,7000 full-time gains and about -900 losses in part-time employment from last month.*
The Goods-producing sector saw significant growth in overall employment number in May (+4,200, +7%), with the biggest percentage gain in Utilities (+2,300, +16.5%), followed closely by Manufacturing (+2,900, +14.6%). Agriculture also saw an increase of 500 employment (+6.5%). On the other hand, Construction experienced employment decrease again in May (-1,200, -7%).
Overall employment in the Services-producing sector saw a decrease of -2.4% (-2,500 people) in May. With -1,600 drop in employment, Business, building and other support services experienced the biggest percentage loss this month (-28.6%), followed by Other services except public administration (-1,100, -15.5%) and Information, culture and recreation (-100, -8.9%). Wholesale and retail trade (-1,100, -4.2%) and Transportation and warehousing (-100, -3.6%) also had employment losses. On the other hand, Educational Services experienced the biggest employment gains this month (+900, +13.6%), followed by Accommodation and food services (+500, +6.4%) and Public Administration (+200, +4.7%).
“Although the economy is facing challenging times; we are seeing positive signs as unemployment rate goes down and overall employment up this month,” said Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “Growth in the overall labour force and employment sizes, as well as growth in sectors that have been struggling are all encouraging signs for the region’s job seekers and employers”.
Current job postings for the Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth region have increased over time since the pandemic and can be found at www.connect2JOBS.ca. The current number of job postings exceeds 1,353.
