August 2022 employment grew in Brantford-Brant, but the jobless rate still climbed after an influx of people searched for work.

The local unemployment rate climbed to 3.8% last month, up from 3.4% in July.

Meanwhile, Canada’s jobless rate jumped half a percentage point to 5.4% in August as employment fell by 40,000 overall. Ontario’s rate climbed to 5.7%, attributed to more people searching for work.

Based on its survey of Brantford-Brant residents, Statistics Canada estimated that an additional 1,700 people entered the labour market in August, with 1,300 finding jobs and 400 not. That pushed up the employment rate by a full percentage point to 64.6%, the highest in the last year.

“With many businesses experiencing labour shortages, this influx of workers is particularly good news,” said Danette Dalton, executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie.

“This will help take some pressure off businesses, but we know that the tight labour market will continue, with lots of competition for workers.”

Dalton said that some companies have increased wages, improved benefits and offered signing bonuses, but it isn’t clear if these actions have enticed people to rejoin the workforce.

The planning board has launched a new survey to better understand what job seekers and workers value most in a job. Wages, benefits, opportunity for promotion, the ability to use a person’s skills?

The Quality of Work survey will run over the next couple of month and local residents are encouraged to take 10 minutes to complete it: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QoW-BE

August saw 3,900 new jobs listed on Grand Erie Jobs, reversing the drop seen in July.

Typically, the most in-demand jobs are in the service industry, which is where the majority of employment growth in August came from, led by positions in wholesale and retail trade.

Statistics Canada’s local survey showed a large chunk of job growth was in full-time work. More men than women began working, with more job gains among men in the core working ages of 25 – 54.

Visit Statistics Canada’s website to read its news release on August 2022 employment in Canada and Ontario.

Translate »

Help Us Serve You Better

We are collecting data to better understand who is looking for work and what kind of opportunities jobseekers are searching for. This data is completely anonymous and non-personally identifiable.

Your Age: