Recent stats show Brantford jobless rate remains at 4.9%

BRANTFORD (April 5, 2024) –

The Brantford area labour market continues to hold steady.

The Brantford-Brant jobless rate stood still for the third straight month at 4.9% in March, according to Statistics Canada’s estimates, based on its monthly survey of local households.

Meanwhile, Norfolk’s unemployment rate was estimated to be 4.6% in March, the first time in six months a figure has been released. Statistics Canada doesn’t release some figures when there isn’t enough data. March’s rate was almost identical to the 4.5% reported last September

Population changes continue to be the No. 1 factor influencing the labour markets at the national and provincial level, but less so locally.

Canada’s unemployment rate jumped in March by 0.3% to 6.1%

- the largest increase in months –though employment only fell by an estimated 2,200 across the country

Ontario’s jobless rate climbed to 6.7%, even though 26,000 more people were working. In Brantford-Brant, about 400 more people were employed last month, continuing slow but steady employment growth since last summer Employment has grown by an estimated 3,500 since August but is almost identical to March 2023 when about 79,500 people were employed.

“These numbers don’t spark great excitement and, sure, we would have liked to see more job growth,” said Danette Dalton, the executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie. The WPBG is one of 26 non-profit organizations in Ontario that play a leadership role in labour force planning. The Workforce Planning Board is funded in part by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario.

“But the fact that we’ve held steady while the population has grown is a positive Our labour market has been able to absorb population growth, replacing workers leaving the workforce with new people.”

Dalton added that in many other communities, including most of those surrounding Brantford-Brant and Norfolk, employment gains have lagged behind population growth

There were 2,000 new jobs posted last month on Grand Erie Jobs, the online job board the planning board maintains. That was up 5% over February, though the number of employers hiring was down slightly at 1,340

The Brant Community Healthcare System posted the most jobs in March, more than 80, while the City of Brantford was also high on the list. Three of the Top 5 jobs advertised were health-care related.