MAY UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DECREASES TO 3.0%
Walkerton, ON (June 7, 2024) – In May, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region continued to decrease by 0.5 percentage points to 3.0%. This is the lowest the unemployment rate has dipped since November 2022. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point to 6.9%, both unadjusted for seasonality.
The Region’s overall population increased by +300 in May whereas the labour force size decreased by -1,000, resulting in the size of population not participating in the labour force to increase by +1,300. Thus, the participation rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 59.8%. Although the Region experienced a decrease of approximately -200 in total employment size, about +700 full-time employment gains were recorded this month.
The number of Goods-producing sector employees decreased by 4.0% (-2,400) this month. Agriculture experienced the biggest percentage loss again this month (-1,400, -13.1%), followed by Manufacturing (-1,400, -6.2%) and Utilities (-100, -1.4%). On the other hand, Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas continued to experience the biggest percentage gain (+200, +9.5%), followed by Construction (+400, +2.3%).
Employment in the Services-producing sector increased by 2.2% (+2,200) this month. With +1,200 employment increase, Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the biggest percentage gain this month (+14.3%), followed by Professional, scientific and technical service (+900, +13.4%) and Accommodation and food services (+800, +10.7%). However, Educational services (-600,-7.7%) experienced the biggest percentage loss this month, followed by Business, building and other support services (-400, -6.1%) and Health care and social assistance (-1,300, -5.6%).
“Although our unemployment rate has dropped again, the seasonality of the sectors does not bode any big surprises” says Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “The HealthCare sector has seen gains in previous months, and will be monitored for any downward trends as seen this month.”
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
2,875.
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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.
