The Four County Labour Market Planning Board has released four new local labour market reports.
Executive Director Dana Soucie says the reports are meant to capture what the overall labour landscape is within the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region.
"Current information, demographics, population, education levels, all kinds of indicators and info exist within these to measure where we're at as far as the current workforce," Soucie explained. "It includes employment services programs and how they've been doing year-to-year, what some of the changes we're seeing are. There's a lot of information. It's an overall view of the region from year-to-year."
The four reports are the 2024-2025 Local Labour Market Plan, the Clean Energy Impacts Report, Examining Our Aging Workforce and the 2024-2025 EmployerOne Survey Observations Report.
One key aspect is the bi-annual EmployerOne Survey Observations Report. Soucie notes that numerous insights are shared within that specific report that are very valuable because the info comes from employers themselves.
"It's a snapshot for us to see what employers are active, who's hiring, whether it's large businesses, small businesses, what type of occupations they are," she said.
You can see the reports at planningboard.ca/reports or you can attend a virtual release session on March 6 at 1 p.m. via Zoom.
The event registration can be accessed through this link or by contacting the Four County Labour Market Planning Board directly. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/h8CE_Uz3R8axrvuPsyO4yQ#/registration
"The success of our reports rely on the participation of our partners, and the greater community," added Soucie. "We continue to address the current trends we uncover and look forward to providing you valuable data each year that will support the life span and growth of local programs and initiatives. This ensures that our communities are armed and ready to tackle the challenges in maintaining the workforce we need now and into the future."
On top of the new reports, the board is looking to continue monitoring the local job market as we head toward uncertain times. Soucie says generally the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region has had very low unemployment rates, sometimes the lowest in the province. But going forward, she says it will be hard to determine what those numbers look like with the threat of tariffs from Donald Trump.
"Well I think we're all facing a little bit of a period of pause with a lot of businesses and so it's something we will be monitoring. I can't really speak to the health of that right now because it's not really a good time to indicate that," she pointed out. "We're going through a lot of political issues with the tariff threats and businesses kind of taking a look at how that's gonna affect them and they're pausing to do some strategic planning right now. So it's very difficult to talk about where the job postings and where the demand is right now. We're gonna be monitoring that over the next few months and as things change."