December 2023 employment numbers saw Brantford area close out the year strong, maintaining its position as having one of the lowest jobless rates in Ontario.
Brantford-Brant’s unemployment rate last month was 4.3%, up from November’s 4.2%, according to Statistics Canada, which conducts a monthly survey of residents conducted in the first week of December.
The survey estimated that employment grew by several hundred jobs last month, pushing up the employment rate to a six-month high.
There is limited Statistics Canada data for Norfolk, but the unemployment rate has hovered below 5% over the last six months.
Canada’s unemployment rate was unchanged in December at 5.8%, while Ontario’s rate increased to 6.3% due to an estimated 48,000 fewer people working.
The Brantford-Brant jobless rate was tied for third lowest in the province, only behind Belleville and Peterborough and matching Thunder Bay.
Over the course of 2023, the area unemployment rate has ranged from a high of 6.8% in January to a low of 3.9% in June. For the last few months, the rate has been just above 4%.
There were about 1,600 new positions and 3,400 total active jobs posted last month on Grand Erie Jobs, the online job board operated by the Workforce Planning Board. There were about 1,250 employers looking for workers.
The number of jobs advertised online by Grand Erie employers has been declining in recent months, a yearly seasonal trend that has been seen across Ontario on job boards operated by two dozen workforce planning boards.
Retail salesperson was the top advertised job last month, locally and across Ontario. Health care and food industry jobs accounted for the rest of the Top 5 postings in Grand Erie, similar to what was seen elsewhere in the Hamilton-Niagara region.
Visit Statistics Canada’s website to read their news release on the December 2023 employment numbers for Canada and Ontario.
