The gradual economic rebound from COVID-19 hasn’t shown up in the job numbers for Brantford just yet.

An estimated 10,000 Brantford area residents were unemployed in June, according to a Statistics Canada survey conducted mid-month. There was a greater influx in job seekers than jobs, which pushed up the local jobless rate to 12.6%, from 11.3% in May. Norfolk’s jobless rate was 10.2%.

For Canada, employment grew in June by 953,000, dropping the month’s jobless rate to 12.3%, down from 13% in May. Meanwhile, employment grew by an estimated 377,000 in Ontario and the monthly unemployment rate fell to 12.2%.

Each metropolitan area near Brantford also saw their jobless rate climb last month: Hamilton, St. Catharines-Niagara, London, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo.

“Since mid-June when Statistics Canada conducted its survey, we’ve seen more Brantford area businesses bring people back to work, including manufacturers, retail stores and restaurants that have opened patios,” said Danette Dalton, executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie.

“The pace of recovery may appear slow, but it is underway. We’re optimistic that the job numbers will look better next month.”

The Workforce Planning Board launched a new local job board called Grand Erie Jobs in late June and there is currently about 1,000 active postings.  

The Top-5 positions in demand from Grand Erie employers were retail salespersons, personal support workers, material handlers, transport truck drivers and delivery/courier drivers. About 90% of employer postings were for full-time positions.

Only 60% of users of the Grand Erie Jobs portal were looking for full-time work, with the other 40% searching for part-time or temporary positions. The Top-3 positions searched for matched the most frequently posted jobs: retail salespersons, PSWs and material handlers.

 

Local businesses are being urged to speak up about what community supports they need on the road to recovery from COVID-19.

The Grand Erie COVID-19 Recovery: Business Insights Survey targets businesses in Brantford, Six Nations, New Credit, and the counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk.  

The survey, running July 6 to July 31, can be found online: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GEMedia 

The Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie is spearheading the survey on behalf of the Grand Erie Recovery Task Force, a group of community and business leaders.

“Over the past few months, our regional task force has narrowed in on the biggest issues that our businesses are facing at this time. This survey is designed to understand that impact and obtain employers’ insights into how we can best support them,” said Executive Director Danette Dalton.

“Our goal is to use the survey results to develop strategic responses to the most pressing labour challenges.”

The survey covers four key themes: changes in consumer demand/preferences, workplace safety, skills in-demand and remote working. 

The goal is to hear from at least 350 businesses of all sectors and sizes.  Results will be analyzed and the findings shared publicly in August.

Grand Erie job seekers have a powerful new tool to search for local jobs, being launched just as the economy starts to reopen.

Grand Erie Jobs, launched by the Workforce Planning Board, features 500+ local job listings on any day covering all sectors and careers, an interactive map and a career explorer tool.  All jobs shown are located in Brantford, New Credit, Six Nations and the counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk.

Executive Director Danette Dalton said the tool has been in the works since last year, before COVID-19, but the launch was moved up because people need help now.

“The pandemic has hit local residents hard, with thousands losing their jobs or having their hours cut, so there’s a clear need for this,” Dalton said. “Grand Erie Jobs is going to be an essential tool as our economy starts to recover and into the future, connecting job seekers with local employers.”

Danette said Grand Erie Jobs will fill a gap identified by many community organizations and leaders. It has been three years since there last was a local job board, but it didn’t serve the entire Grand Erie area.

Grand Erie Jobs is automated to crawl more than 20 popular national, provincial and local online job sites to find jobs in the area, then puts them in one spot, so job seekers don’t have to search multiple websites. Employers don’t post directly on the website.

The Workforce Planning Board believes the interactive map sets it apart from other job boards.

Users can see and search job postings shown on the map. The map also shows the location of 400+ community services people might use, from employment centres to public transit, child care, libraries and government services.

“The map is designed that way because job seekers may want to know if there is child care, schools or transit near the workplace,” Dalton said. “Other services are listed because residents sometimes need community supports to be successful, whether access to food banks, health services, counselling and more.”

Another 1,500 Brantford area residents were out of work in May, as COVID-19 continued to send shockwaves through the economy. Brantford’s jobless rate hit 11.3% in May, up from 9.4% in April, according to estimates released by Statistics Canada Friday. An estimated 8,800 people were out of work last month, almost double from May 2019. However, there are signs that the picture isn’t as bleak as the numbers suggest, according to the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie. The board says governments have eased COVID-19 restrictions and more businesses have reopened since the middle of May, when Statistics Canada conducted its local survey. “We may have reached a peak. In Brantford and across our Grand Erie region there are positive signs that people are going back to work and businesses are reopening,” said Executive Director Danette Dalton. “Our local economy and job market still have a long, long way to go, but community organizations and leaders are working hard to make the recovery as fast and smooth as possible.” In May, Brantford saw women, especially young women, impacted the most by job losses, while employment climbed for men in the core working age group of 25-54. Women have been harder hit by pandemic job losses because more women than men work in the service sector. Youth employment continued to fall last month in the area, which is consistent with Canada’s overall numbers. According to Statistics Canada the national unemployment for students returning to school is 40% – triple from a year ago – while it tops 25% for youth who aren’t students.

Thousands more Brantford residents were thrown out of work in April as COVID-19 slammed the economy.

An estimated 7,300 local residents were unemployed in April, up 2,700 from March and up almost 4,000 since January, according to Statistics Canada figures released Friday. April’s Brantford jobless rate of 9.4% – a 3.5% one-month jump – was the highest in nine years.

The Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie says Brantford has fared worse than most surrounding large communities, with the exception of the 9.9% recorded in St. Catharines-Niagara, an area with thousands of tourism-related jobs. Hamilton has the lowest April jobless rate at 7.5%.

“You can’t sugar coat this: thousands of our residents and businesses are feeling the pain of COVID-19’s impact on employment and the economy,” said Danette Dalton, the board’s executive director. “We hope some of that pain will be eased very soon, as businesses reopen and people are called back to work.”

Over the last two months in Brantford, men have been harder hit than women by full-time job losses, and there’s evidence that more people have seen their hours drop to part time. The age group that has seen the largest share of job loss has been young workers, aged 15 to 24, particularly part-timers. There have been modest job gains among older women, including seniors.

People working in manufacturing and construction saw job losses of more than 10% in April, while there were also large drops in the number of people working in sales, service, transport, arts, culture and recreation. There were modest gains in the number of people working in government services, finance, insurance and related occupations.