The local unemployment rate decreased in November.
The Four County Labour Market Planning Board says in its monthly report for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula economic region, it decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 3.2 per cent.
They say it remains the second lowest in the province.
Dana Soucie, Executive Director for the Four County Labour Market Planning Board says in a statement, “We saw a slight dip in our unemployment rate this month which is consistent with the local trends” adding, “We are encouraged to see a gain in the health care, social assistance and other services sectors and will continue to monitor
participation rate changes over time.”
Meanwhile, the provincial unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 6.8 per cent. The national number increased to 6.8 per cent from 6.5 the month before.
In November, the region’s overall population increased by 300 but the labour force size decreased by 1,000 to 169,300, pushing the size of population not in the labour force up by 1,300 people.
This also brought the Region’s participation rate down by 0.4 percentage points to 60 per cent.
The Region experienced a slight decrease of 100 in overall employment with approximately 900 full-time losses and 800 part-time gains.
The biggest loss was in the utilities sector (-1,100, -9.6 per cent), manufacturing losses -800 employment (-3.9 per cent), followed by agriculture (-300, -2.2 per cent).
On the other hand, employment in construction increased by 1,000 people (+5.2 per cent). Employment in the services-producing sector saw increases by 1.1 per cent (+1,100) this month. With +1,900 additional employment, health care and social assistance (+9.9 per cent). Wholesale and retail trade (+800, +4.5 per cent) and information, culture and recreation (+200, +4.1 per cent) also experienced employment gains in November.
Public administration saw the biggest percentage loss in employment (-500, -11.4 per cent), followed by accommodation and food services (-1,100, -10.9 per cent) and finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (-500, -7.4 per cent).
They say current Job postings for the Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth region can be found at www.connect2JOBS.ca.
The current number of job postings reaches 1,499.