​June unemployment rate drops to 2.4%, says labour market planning board

In June, the unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula Economic Region continued to decrease by 0.6 percentage points to 2.4 per cent. This is the lowest the unemployment rate has dipped since November, 2019. Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.9 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 June; whereas, the labour force size increased marginally by 100, resulting in the size of population not participating in the labour force to increase by 300. The participation rate remained unchanged from May at 59.8 per cent. The region experienced an increase of approximately 1,200 in total employment size, with 2,600 full-time employment gains and 1,400 part-time employment losses.

The number of goods-producing sector employees decreased marginally by 0.9 per cent (-500) in June. Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas experienced the biggest percentage loss this month (-400, -17.4 per cent), followed by manufacturing (-900, -4.3 per cent) and construction (-300, -1.7 per cent).

On the other hand, utilities experienced the biggest percentage gain (+700, +10.0 per cent), followed by agriculture (+500, +5.4 per cent).

Employment in the services-producing sector increased by 1.6 per cent (+1,600) last month. With +1,600 employment increase, professional, scientific and technical services experienced the biggest percentage gain this month (+21.1 per cent), followed by accommodation and food services (+1,000, +12.0 per cent) and finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+1,100, +11.5 per cent).

However, business, building and other support services (-700,-11.3 per cent) experienced the biggest percentage loss, followed by educational services (-500, -6.9 per cent) and health care and social assistance (-1,200, -5.4 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 2,542.