In November, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region, which includes the Municipality of Meaford, further decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 3.2%. The Region’s unemployment rate remains the second lowest in the province. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 6.8%, both unadjusted for seasonality.
In November, the Region’s overall population increased by +300 but the labour force size decreased by -1,000 to 169,300, pushing the size of population not in the labour force up by +1,300 people. This also brought the Region’s participation rate down by 0.4 percentage point to 60.0%. The Region experienced a slight decrease of -100 in overall employment with approximately -900 full-time losses and +800 part-time gains.
The number of Goods-producing sector employees decreased by 1.8% (-1,200) in November, with the biggest percentage loss in the Utilities sector (-1,100, -9.6%). Manufacturing losses -800 employment (-3.9%), followed by Agriculture (-300, -2.2%). On the other hand, employment in Construction increased by 1,000 people (+5.2%) this month.
Employment in the Services-producing sector saw increases by 1.1% (+1,100) this month. With +1,900 additional employment, Health care and social assistance experienced the biggest percentage gain (+9.9%), followed closely by Other services (except public administration) (+700, +9.5%). Wholesale and retail trade (+800, +4.5%) and Information, culture and recreation (+200, +4.1%) also experienced employment gains in November. However, Public administration saw the biggest percentage loss in employment (-500, -11.4%), followed by Accommodation and food services (-1,100, -10.9%) and Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-500, -7.4%).
“We saw a slight dip in our unemployment rate this month which is consistent with the local trends,” said Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “We are encouraged to see a gain in the Health Care, Social Assistance and Other Services sectors and will continue to monitor participation rate changes over time.”
Current Job postings for the Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth region have increased overtime since the pandemic and can be found at www.connect2JOBS.ca. The current number of job postings reaches 1,499.
