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It’s a mixed bag of numbers for the Windsor area in Statistics Canada’s May labour force survey as the region retains its position of having the highest unemployment rate in the nation — but at the same time as being one of Canada’s top job generators.
With 3,000 more people became employed in the Windsor area last month, only Toronto, Calgary and Victoria saw better job creation. And yet local unemployment edged upward by 0.1 basis points to 8.5 per cent.
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“The unemployment rate increased but that can be attributed to the increasing numbers of people returning to the job market and 1,200 more new arrivals outpacing an impressive jobs gain,” said Workforce WindsorEssex CEO Justin Falconer.
“The underlying numbers were good overall,” he told the Windsor Star.
The number of employed people grew to 190,200, an increase of 6,000 since November. The number of unemployed also increased by 700, to 17,700 people.
The labour force (people employed plus those looking for work) swelled by 3,700 people to 207,900. That’s the largest labour force the Windsor census metropolitan area has ever recorded.
Windsor ranked eighth in the actual number of people added to its labour force in Canada with the other CMAs ahead of it having populations that were at minimum twice as large, except for Victoria, B.C, which has 50,000 more residents.
“That’s indicative of our growing population,” Falconer said. “I don’t see that letting up.”
The Windsor CMA, which also includes Lakeshore, Tecumseh, LaSalle and Amherstburg, has added 5,000 new residents of working age (15-years or older) so far this year.
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The participation rate also jumped 0.9 percentage points to 63.7 per cent and the employment rate was up 0.7 to 58.2 per cent.
At the national level, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 points to 6.2 per cent while in Ontario it dropped by 0.1 to 6.7 per cent.
“Southern Ontario is driving the job growth numbers in Ontario,” Falconer said. “Our employment rate last month increased by more than triple the provincial rate.”
Based on Workforce WindsorEssex’s monthly job postings so far in June, he said local employers remain in a hiring mood.
Postings rose 11 per cent in May to 5,867 from 2,043 employers but already reached 3,509 in the first week of June.
“It seems we could get as high as 7,000 active postings by the end of June,” Falconer said.
The largest job gains last month came in the food and accommodation (2,700 jobs), construction (1,000), transportation/warehousing (800), public administration (1,100) and finance, insurance, leasing (600) sectors.
The manufacturing sector was up slightly, with a gain of 100 jobs.
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“The food and accommodation sector numbers increase with the warm weather and festivals coming up, but this May dwarfed the numbers from May 2023 and 2022,” Falconer said.
“There are 17,400 in food and accommodation now compared to 13,000 last year and the year before.”
Sectors losing the most jobs last month were wholesale/retail trade (2,100 jobs) and health care/social services (700 jobs).
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