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The Windsor area tied for the highest unemployment rate in Canada in February, but that hasn’t stopped the population from growing at an increasing rate.
The unemployment rate jumped 0.2 points to 7.4 per cent and the Windsor census metropolitan area’s population added 1,200 new residents. That’s the largest single-month increase in more than two decades.
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The national unemployment rate rose 0.1 to 5.8 per cent while the provincial rate increased 0.3 to 6.5 per cent.
“We are in a slow period of economic growth,” said Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Rakesh Naidu said. “We are not immune to what is happening provincially and nationally.
“We’re going to continue to experience this until the economy takes an upturn, interest rates drop and liquidity returns to the market.”
The local CMA, which includes Windsor, Lakeshore, Tecumseh, LaSalle and Amherstburg, has grown by 11,500 people since February 2023. The Windsor CMA population now totals 322,900.
Despite the population growth, the local labour force decreased by 2,200 last month. The labour force has shrunk by 2,600 people since February 2023.
However, those people didn’t show up on the unemployment rolls where there was only an increase of 200 people.
“February was a bit of an anomaly,” said Corey Shenken, special projects lead for Workforce WindsorEssex. “I’m surprised by February’s numbers after what we saw in January.
“There’s no reason for the labour force to fall like that when our population is growing like it is. Two thousand people have just left the workforce.”
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The Statistics Canada monthly report also recorded a 0.9-point decline in the participation rate, those not looking for work at all, in February. That represented an increase of 3,400 people to 124,300, which is the highest number of people not participating in looking for work since Oct. 2022.
Shenken said there may be some retirements in there with a local workforce that is aging, but it would never account for such a monthly jump. He added some people may be upskilling, improving their education and some newcomers to the region may not be trying to enter the workforce right away.
“A shrinking labour force with such population growth would be concerning if this month isn’t an anomaly,” Shenken said. “There’s no obvious explanation for what happened last month.
“It’s not like there’s not enough jobs out there to match the population growth. Employers are looking for people.”
Workforce WindsorEssex’s jobs board saw a jump of 21 per cent in the number of active new listings last month. There were over 1,800 employers looking to hire.
Naidu said part of the issue may be a mismatch in the jobs and the skills of the population.
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“The skills mismatch is something we know exists, though I haven’t heard of it increasing,” Naidu said. “It’s something we must look at and make sure we have the people with the right skill sets needed.”
Naidu feels February will prove an anomaly, especially with interest rates expected to trend down. He said that will spur more activity in construction and manufacturing that will have a ripple effect through the local economy.
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Though Stellantis’s Windsor Assembly Plant and its feeder plants have been working seven days a week since Christmas, Naidu said the region’s manufacturing sector is a little slower right now.
“The OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have slowed or paused some of the rollouts of new programs,” Naidu said.
The manufacturing sector lost the most jobs last month (1,200) followed by wholesale/retail (1,000), professional/scientific/technical services (800) and public administration (500).
Growth was experienced in transportation/warehousing (800 jobs), construction (600), agriculture (300) and educational services (100).
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