`Lot of positives' despite top jobless rate

Despite posting the nation's highest jobless rate last month — with a 0.9 percentage point jump pushing the local figure to 8.4 per cent — some see good news in Windsor's high unemployment.

“It's disappointing to see that number jump and that'll be the headline, but if you take a deeper dive into the numbers there are a lot of positives there,” said Corey Shenken, Workforce Windsoressex's project co-ordinator and researcher.

“People see the unemployment rate and they don't see the background numbers. The biggest jump we saw was in the number of people entering the labour force.

“That was about 3,000. That's huge. It's difficult to incorporate that many people in a month and not have a rise in the unemployment rate.”

The Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey for April provided some widely contrasting numbers that Shenken describes as largely positive. The growth of the labour force was the largest monthly increase since December 2022. The labour force in the Windsor Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which also includes Lakeshore, Tecumseh, Lasalle and Amherstburg, now stands at 204,200 workers.

Shenken said that many people rejoining the search for work is a positive sign.

The number of employed people also increased by 800 to 187,200. That's the largest number since September 2023.

The other contributing factor to the growth of the labour force is that the local population added another 1,200 residents in April. That marks the 10th consecutive month the population has grown by 1,000 people or more.

“The unemployment rate might also reflect a lag time for newcomers in settling in and finding jobs,” Shenken said.

In the past 12 months, the Windsor CMA has added 12,600 new residents to bring the population to 325,400. In the past year, the number of newcomers has increased nearly 40 per cent more than in the previous two years combined.

“People are still coming here,” Shenken said. "Jobs are also still here. Job postings in April were up six per cent compared to March. there were 5,309 active job postings in April. Those came from 1,943 different employers.”

Shenken said the challenge locally may be in a skills mismatch.

He said training and upskilling newcomers and displaced workers must become more of a focus. He added employers can help themselves by sharing the skills and number of workers they're seeking.

The good news for the region was the manufacturing sector — the biggest driver of the local economy — stepping it up a gear in April. The sector added 1,100 jobs locally last month, so it came as no surprise transportation and warehousing enjoyed an increase of 800 positions.

“As long as the manufacturing sector does well, you're going to see transportation and warehousing following along,” Shenken said.

Other sectors enjoying substantial increases were construction (800 jobs); finance, insurance, real estate and leasing (600 jobs); and public administration (700 jobs). Food and accommodation was the biggest winner, adding 1,900 jobs. Professional, scientific and technical services continued its recent losing streak with a loss of 1,400 positions while wholesale/retail contracted by 1,200 jobs.