WALKERTON – The region’s unemployment rate saw a significant drop in June.
The Four County Labour Market Planning Board reports the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region’s unemployment rate for June was 4.5 per cent, a 1.4 percentage point drop from May.
Provincially, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point to 5.5 per cent.
Both regional and provincial rates are unadjusted for seasonality.
The Planning Board also reports the labour force size decreased from 167,000 people in May to 164,600 in June. The size of population not participating in the labour force also increased by 2,800, bringing the participation rate down by 0.9 per cent to 60.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, while overall employment size in the region remained the same in June, 400 full-time losses and 400 part-time gains were reported last month.
The number of goods-producing sector employees decreased this month by net 500 (-0.8 per cent). With a loss of 1,000 employees, utilities experienced the greatest loss this month (-14.7 per cent), followed by agriculture (-800, -5.5 per cent) and manufacturing (-600, -2.7 per cent). Construction was the only goods-producing sector that experienced a gain in June (+1,300, +6.1 per cent).
Employment in the services-producing sector increased by net 500 (+0.5 per cent). With an increase of 1,700 employees, other services (except public administration) experienced the greatest gain last month (+38.6 per cent), followed by accommodation and food services (+1,600, +32.0 per cent) and information, culture and recreation (+700, +23.3 per cent). Transportation and warehousing experienced the biggest loss in June (-800, -23.5 per cent), followed by educational services (-1,300, -13.0 per cent) and health care and social assistance (-1,900, -9.7 per cent).
