In September, the unemployment rate in the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region, which includes the Municipality of Meaford, decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8%. The Region sits at the second lowest unemployment rate in the province, behind Northwest Ontario. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate remained unchanged this month at 8.3%, both unadjusted for seasonality. Employment in the Region decreased in the goods-producing sector (-3.0%; -1,800) and increased in the services-producing sector (+4%; +3,300).
In September, the Region’s overall population aged 15+ increased by +200 whereas the labour force size increased by 1,400 people, resulting in the number of people not in the labour force in the Region to decrease by 1,200. This increased the Region’s participation rate up by 0.4 percentage points to 58.6%. The Region experienced an increase of 1,600 people in overall employment. We saw approximately +3,000 full-time employment gains and -1,400 losses in part-time employment were recorded in the Region.
The Goods-producing sector saw a decrease in overall employment numbers in September (-1,800 people, – 3.0%), with the biggest loss in Utilities (-1,400, -12%), followed by Manufacturing (-1,200, -5%) and Agriculture (-200, -0.2%). On the other hand, Construction experienced an employment increase (+800, +4%).
Overall employment in the Services-producing sector saw an increase of +4% (+3,300 people) in September.
Business, building and other support services experienced the largest percentage growth in employment (+700, +22%) followed by Educational services (+900, +18%), Healthcare and social assistance (+2,600, +14%) and Information, culture and recreation (+700, +13%). On the other hand, Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest percentage decrease in September (-1,200, -20%) followed by Transportation and warehousing (-400, -12%) and Other services (except public administration) (-500, -6%).
“There was little change to our overall unemployment rate this month, and we are seeing some positive indicators,” said Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “With an increase in both full-time employment and participation rates, our region’s labour force is trending in the right direction.”
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 currently exceeds 2,000.
