Jobless stats remain strong

2,100 net new jobs added in April, StatsCanada finds

Peterborough gained 2,100 net new jobs in April as the local economy continued to recover following the lifting of most COVID-19 measures earlier this year.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that Peterborough’s unemployment rate in April edged up to 3.9 per cent, up from 3.8 per cent in March — but only because even more people joined the labour force in April.

Hundreds of jobs remain up for grabs: the online Indeed jobs website list 1,358 jobs available in Peterborough as of Friday while the federal government’s Canada Job Bank had 341 Peterborough listings.

Peterborough had the sixth lowest jobless rate of Canada’s 34 census metropolitan areas and the second lowest in Ontario. Only Sudbury’s rate at 3.5 per cent was lower in Ontario in April. Quebec City had the lowest rate nationally at 2.5 per cent.

The national rate was a recordlow 5.2 per cent, while Ontario’s rate edged up to 5.4 per cent from 5.3 per cent in March.

By comparison, the unemployment rate in Barrie fell to 7.1 per cent in April from 7.6 per cent in March, Oshawa dropped to 4.9 per cent from 5.4 per cent while Kingston rose to 6.2 per cent from 5.9 per cent.

In February 2020, the month prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peterborough had 56,500 people working, which plunged to 48,700 several months into the pandemic, and a 6.6 per cent jobless rate, which rose to 13.5 per cent by December 2020. The local jobless rate dipped again to 9.7 per cent in December 2021 at the start of the Omicron wave of the pandemic.

In April, Peterborough had 68,200 people working — up by 5,100 from a year ago — with 2,800 unable to find work, down from 4,800 a year ago, the survey found.

The local 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 and are seasonally adjusted. Because of its size, Peterborough has a smaller sample size than the other cities, which Statistics Canada warns can cause variability in the sampling.