WALKERTON – In September, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.2 per cent.
The provincial unemployment rate increased slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 6.4 per cent, both unadjusted for seasonality.
The region’s labour force size decreased from 164,300 in August to 162,700 in September. The size of population not participating in the labour force also increased by 2,000, bringing the participation rate down by 0.7 percentage points to 59.6 per cent. While 600 full-time employment gains were reported last month, the increase was accompanied with 1,400 part-time employment losses, resulting in a net loss of 900 in the region’s overall employment size in September.
The number of goods-producing sector employees increased by net 700 (1.1 per cent) this month. With additional 500 employees, forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas experienced the biggest gain this month (+27.8 per cent), followed by utilities (+900, 13.2 per cent) and agriculture (+600, 5.2 per cent). On the other hand, construction experienced the biggest lost this month (-900, -4.2 per cent), followed by manufacturing (-400, -1.9 per cent).
Employment in the services-producing sector decreased by net 1,700 (-1.8 per cent). With a loss of 800 employees, Information, culture and recreation experienced the biggest loss this month (-12.9 per cent), followed by health care and social assistance (-1,100, -7.4 per cent) and public administration (-300, -7.1 per cent). On the other hand, business, building and other support services experienced the greatest gain this month (+900, +26.5 per cent), followed by transportation and warehousing (+400, – 18.2 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical services (+400, +4.6 per cent).
