The unemployment rate for the Midwestern Ontario region decreased again in July, dropping 0.6 percentage points to five per cent.
The latest report for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region showed that employment actually went down slightly, but the size of the labour force has decreased even more so.
Dana Skirten, CEO for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board, said there was nothing alarming in the numbers, but the age of the population continues to be a concern.
"We have been chronically one of the lowest unemployment rates in Ontario for over 10 years," she said. "We continue to monitor the participation rate. I don't like seeing that going down. We are not the lowest participation rate in Ontario, but we do definitely keep an eye on that."
The Planning Board released a report this February examining different factors of the job market that influence whether youth stay in the region or leave.
She noted that rural regions often lose youth to out-migration as they leave for training, but they continue to look at strategies employers can use to help bring them back. They also explore ways to supplement the aging population through immigration.
Another area the planning board is tracking is job losses in health care, after highlighting concerns in the June report.
Skirten said while some said the numbers didn't reflect the situation, more specific breakdowns available later showed the sectors that were hit.
"We looked and its mainly in the ambulatory and the residential care areas that we saw the biggest losses," she said. "We'll continue to watch that, we're hoping it rebounds... health care is definitely one of the sectors we're watching and we're going to have to dig into why."
There are currently over 1,300 job postings for the region at www.connect2JOBS.ca.
