In August, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region, which includes the Municipality of Meaford, increased by 0.9 percentage points to 3.7% – the largest percentage increase of all regions in Ontario, although the region’s unemployment rate remains the lowest in Ontario. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points to 7.6%, both unadjusted for seasonality.
The Region’s overall population increased by +400 in August whereas the labour force size increased significantly by +3,300, resulting in the size of population not participating in the labour force to decrease by -2,800. This drove the participation rate up by 1.1 percentage points to 62.5%. The Region experienced an increase of approximately +1,600 in total employment size, as a result of +200 full-time employment gains and +1,500 part-time employment gains.
The number of Goods-producing sector employees increased by 5.0% (+3,000) this month. Utilities once again experienced the biggest percentage gain this month (+1,800, +20.0 %), followed by Agriculture (+1,800, +16.2%). On the other hand, Construction experienced the biggest loss (-300, -1.6%), followed by Manufacturing (-100,-0.1%).
Employment in the Services-producing sector decreased by -1.3% (-1,400) this month. With +1,000 employment increase, Information, culture and recreation experienced the biggest percentage gain this month (+22.7%), followed by Professional, scientific and technical services (+1,400, +11.4%) and Accommodation and food services (+900, +8.9%). However, Transportation and warehousing experienced the biggest percentage loss this month (-700,-12.7%), followed by Wholesale and retail trade (-2,200, -10.6%), Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-800, -7.8%), and Business, building and other support services (-300, -6.1%).
“Although we continue to be one of the lowest unemployment rates in the provinces, it is encouraging to see another increase in participation rates,” said Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “We continue to watch for sector trends and will be monitoring these changes over time.”
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 reached 1,800.
