The unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region edged down slightly to 3.6 per cent in October.
That's a drop of 0.6 percentage points, while the provincial rate was up by just 0.2 percentage points to 6.2 per cent.
The local labour force size shrank by 2,500 workers to 160,200 in October 2023, despite the fact that 400 more people aged 15 years and up joined the local population. The Four County Labour Market Planning Board said at the same time another 2,900 people are not participating in the labour force, and the participation rate dropped by 1 percentage point to 58.6 per cent.
There were 1,500 full-time employment losses and 100 part-time employment losses reported last month, resulting in a total loss of 1,600 in the region’s overall employment size in October.
The number of Goods-producing sector employees decreased by net 2,700 this month, while manufacturing saw a substantial loss of 2,100 employees, or about 10.4 per cent. Construction had 1,600 fewer workers. On the other hand, forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas again experienced a gain of 8.7 per cent in employment, followed by agriculture which gained about 500 workers. Employment in the services-producing sector increased by net 1,200 while an additional 1,100 employees worked in transportation. Education gained 1,500, while business, building and other support services added 400 jobs. Information, culture and recreation lost 1,100 employees last month, and about 700 fewer people were working in public administration. Accommodation and food services also lost 700 employees.
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 has reached almost 2,800 postings.
