MIDWESTERN ONTARIO – The local unemployment rate continues to drop, according to data released last week by the Four County Labour Market Planning Board.
The local unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points in July to 4.3 per cent, while the provincial rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 5.9 per cent.
The region’s labour force size continued to drop from 164,600 people in June to 163,600 in July. The size of population not participating in the labour force also increased by 1,400, bringing the participation rate down by 0.5 percentage points to 60.1 per cent. Meanwhile, 1,700 full-time employment gains were reported last month, but the increase was accompanied with 2,400 part-time employment losses, resulting in 700 net losses in the region’s overall employment size.
The number of goods-producing sector employees decreased in July by net 1,400 (-2.2 per cent). With a loss of 1,300 employees, agriculture experienced the greatest loss last month (-9.4 per cent), followed by construction (-600, -2.7 per cent). Utilities experienced the biggest gain in July (+300, 5.2 per cent), followed by manufacturing (+100, 0.5 per cent).
Employment in the services-producing sector increased by net 700 (+0.8 per cent). With an increase of 1,500 employees, Information, culture and recreation experienced the greatest gain (+40.5 per cent), followed by other services – except public administration (+1,000, 16.4 per cent) and finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+600, 10.7 per cent). On the other hand, educational services experienced the biggest loss this month (-1,100, -12.6 per cent), followed by health care and social assistance (-1,300, -7.3 per cent) and transportation and warehousing (-100, -3.85 per cent).
