Peterborough unemployment rate rises to 4.8%
Peterborough has given up its reign after three months of having the lowest unemployment rate of Canada’s 34 census metropolitan areas, even though more people were employed in August.
Peterborough’s jobless rate jumped to 4.8 per cent in August, up from 3.3 per cent in July and 2.7 per cent in both May and
June, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.
Peterborough tied for the eighth lowest rate of the 34 census metropolitan areas. Quebec City took over again with the lowest rate at 3.7 per cent, while St. John’s, N.L. remains with the highest rate at 9.5 per cent.
Nearby, Oshawa’s jobless rate rose to 4.9 per cent in August from 4.4 per cent in July, Kingston’s rose to 6 per cent from 5.9 per cent while Barrie’s fell to 6.7 per cent from 7 per cent in July.
The national unemployment rate rose to 6 per cent in August from 5.8 per cent in July while Ontario’s jobless rate rose to 5.7 per cent from 5.4 per cent in July.
Peterborough had 62,900 people employed in August. That’s 1,200 more than July and also 1,200 more than in August 2017.
Peterborough’s adjusted labour force stood at 66,200 in August, up from 63,800 in July but down from 67,200 a year ago. Of those 62,900 were employed and 3,200 were unemployed, compared to 61,700 and 900 a year ago.
Peterborough’s labour force participation rate (the proportion of people who are either employed or unemployed but looking for work out of the total working-age population) was 62.3 per cent in August, up from 60.2 per cent in Julye and down from 64 per cent a year ago. The rate is a little lower than the national average participation rate of 65.4 per cent.
The figures are for the Peterborough census metropolitan area, which includes the city, the four surrounding townships of Cavan Monaghan, Selwyn, Douro-Dummer and Otonabee-South Monaghan, along with Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations.
Statistics Canada jobless figures are based on surveys adjusted to a three-month rolling average. Because of its size, Peterborough has a smaller sample size than the other cities which Statistics Canada warns can cause variability in the sampling.