7,300 fewer people working locally

A shrinking labour force is keeping Peterborough’s unemployment rate low. Peterborough’s unemployment rate inched up to 4.5 per cent in October from 4.4 per in September, Statistics Canada reported Friday. Peterborough is tied for fifth for the lowest jobless rate of Canada’s 34 census metropolitan areas and remains well below the national rate, which held steady at 5.5 per cent in October, and the provincial rate which also held steady at 5.3 per cent. Quebec City continues to have the lowest rate at 3 per cent, while Saint John, N.B., has the highest at 7.7 per cent. Nearby, Oshawa’s jobless rate rose to

5.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent in September, Kingston dipped to 5.9 per cent from 6 per cent and Barrie dropped to to 5.6 per cent from 5.9 per cent. Peterborough had 59,900 people employed in October, down 600 jobs from September and down 7,300 from a year ago. Peterborough’s adjusted labour force for October was 62,700, also down 600 from a month ago and down 8,800 from 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 58.1 per cent in October, down from 58.7 per cent in September and 67.2 per cent a year ago. The local rate has fallen below than the national average participation rate of 65.7 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. Peterborough has a smaller sample size than the other cities, which Statistics Canada warns can cause variability in the sampling.