MARCH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DECREASES TO 5.4%
Walkerton, ON (April 4, 2025) – In March, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 5.4%. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate increased from 7.2% to 7.6% this month, both unadjusted for seasonality.
In March, the Region’s overall population increased by +300 although the labour force size decreased by -3,200 people, pushing the number of people not in the labour force in the Region up by 3,500 to 117,000 people. This drew down the Region’s participation rate by 1.2 percentage points to 59.9%. The Region experienced a decrease of about -2,100 people in overall employment, with approximately +500 full-time gains and -2,500 part-time loss. *
The overall employment number of Goods-producing sector dropped slightly by 0.2% (-200) in March, with the biggest percentage loss in Construction (-1,600, -7,7%), followed by Manufacturing (-100, -0.6%). On the other hand, employment in Utilities experienced the biggest increase again this month (+1,300, +11.5%), followed by Agriculture (+100, +1.3%).
Overall employment in the Services-producing sector saw a decrease of -1.8% (-1,900) this month. With -1,700 drop in employment, Professional, scientific and technical services experienced the biggest percentage loss this month (-13.7%), followed by Health care and social assistance (-2,200, -9.6%) and Transportation and warehousing (-400, -9.3%). Educational services (-500, -7.4%) and Accommodation and food services (-300, -3.9%) also saw employment losses. On other hand, Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the biggest employment gains this month (+1,700, +26.6%), followed by Business, building and other support services (+300, +6.1%) and Other services (except public administration) (+300, +4.3%).
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 1,322.
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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.
