​July unemployment rate increases to 2.8%, says labour market planning board

In July, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region increased by 0.4 percentage points to 2.8 per cent after dropping for five consecutive months. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 7.1 per cent, both unadjusted for seasonality.

That’s the word from the Four County Labour Market Planning Board.

The region’s overall population increased by 400 in July; whereas, the labour force size increased significantly by 4,700, resulting in the size of population not participating in the labour force to decrease by 4,400. This drove the participation rate up by 1.6 percentage points to 61.4 per cent.

The growth in labour force size partly explained the increase in unemployment rate in July.

The region experienced an increase of approximately 3,900 in total employment size, as a result of 5,200 full-time employment gains, partly compensated by 1,400 part-time employment losses.

The number of goods-producing sector employees increased by 4.7 per cent (+2,700) last month. Utilities experienced the biggest percentage gain this month (+1,300, +16.9 per cent), followed by agriculture (+1,300, +13.3 per cent) and construction (+600, +3.4 per cent).

On the other hand, forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas again experienced the biggest loss (-300, -15.8 per cent), followed by manufacturing (-300, -2.5 per cent).

Employment in the services-producing sector increased by 1.3% (+1,300) last month. With 3,100 employment increase, professional, scientific and technical services experienced the biggest percentage gain again (+33.7 per cent), followed by information, culture and recreation (+800, +22.2 per cent) and accommodation and food services (+800, +8.6 per cent).

However, education experienced the biggest percentage loss (-800, -11.9 per cent), followed by business, building and other support services (-600, -10.9 per cent), transportation and warehousing (-400, -6.8 per cent) and health care and social assistance (-900, -4.3 per cent).

Current job postings for the Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth region have increased over time since the COVID-19 pandemic and can be found at www.connect2JOBS.ca. The current number of job postings reaches 2,130.