JANUARY UNEMPLOYMENT RATE INCREASES TO 5.8%
Walkerton, ON (February 7, 2025) – In January, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region jumped to 5.8%, also the biggest increase (+2 percentage points) across Ontario, after sitting at one of the lowest in the province for months. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment increased by 0.3 percentage point to 7.2%, both unadjusted for seasonality.
In January, the Region’s overall population increased by +500; the labour force size also increased by +1,200 to 178,600 whereas the not in labour force population decreased by -900. This brought the Region’s participation rate up by 0.3 percentage point to 61.3%. On the other hand, the Region experienced a decrease of -2,400 people in overall employment, with approximately -5,400 full-time losses and +3,000 part-time gains. The increase in labour force size combined overall employment losses brought the unemployment population up by 3,700 people, resulting in a noticeable increase in the Region’s unemployment rate last month.
The number of Goods-producing sector employees decreased by 3.4% (-2,200) in January, with biggest percentage loss again in the Agriculture sector (-2,500, -20.7%) due to seasonality, followed by the Manufacturing (-900 employment (-700, -3.6%) and Construction (-100, -0.5%). On the other hand, employment in Utilities increased by 500 people (+4.9%) this month.
Overall employment in the Services-producing sector saw a slight decrease of 0.2% (-200) this month. Public Administration saw the biggest percentage loss in employment (-700, -16.7%), followed by Professional, scientific and technical services (-1,900, -12.7%) and Other services except public administration (-600, -7.9%). We also saw employment losses in Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-200, -3.3%), Transportation and warehousing (-100, -2.2%) and Accommodation and food services (-100, -1.2%) in January. However, Information, culture and recreation with +800 additional employment, experienced the biggest percentage gain again (+13.1%), followed by Educational services (+500, +7.9%) and Health care and social assistance (+1,300, +5.8%). Business, building and other support services (+200, +5.0%) and wholesale and retail trade (+600, +2.8%) also experienced employment gains this month.
“The unemployment rate increased significantly this month”. says Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “This aligns with the trends happening across Ontario; however, we will continue to monitor sectors where current economic challenges may be affecting them more than others”.
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 1,212.
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Note: Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Survey provides estimates of employment and unemployment, based on a sampling of households in communities. Stratford-Bruce Peninsula figures represent a three-month moving average, unadjusted for seasonality. Numbers may not sum to total due to rounding.
