In October, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region (ER) saw another decrease by 0.6 percentage points from 3.6% to 3%, which is the lowest in 2021 so far. This unemployment rate is also the lowest among economic regions in Ontario. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate decreased to 7.4%, with both rates unadjusted for seasonality.

Overall net employment in the region remained unchanged at 162,200, with full-time losses (-400) and part-time gains (300).

The number of Goods-producing sector workers increased by net 200. The main driving force came from positive gains in Construction (2,200) while the biggest losses were in Agriculture (-1,000). This has been the third consecutive increase of employment in Construction.

Employment in the Services-producing sector decreased by net 300. The biggest losses came from Professional, scientific and technical services (-1,200) and Accommodation and food services (-2,100) while the greatest gains continued to be in Health care and social assistance (1,800).

“With such a low unemployment rate, growing our workforce to fill job vacancies and meet employers’ worker needs will be top priority as we saw the labour force shrink by 1000 people between September and October,” says Gemma Mendez-Smith, Executive Director of the Four County Labour Market Planning Board.

Current job postings for the Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth region have increased overtime since the pandemic and can be found at: www.connect2JOBS.ca. This is updated regularly so visit often and create your account to track the job opportunities. Our current number of job postings exceed 2,700.

source: media release, Four County Labour Market Planning Board