Ontario Construction News staff writer
Statistics Canada data indicates construction unemployment in Ontario increased in January.
The overall employment numbers were the lowest they’ve been since May, 2021, the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) reported in a bulletin last Tuesday (Feb. 8).
Employment declined by 1.5% (8,200 jobs) and the unemployment rate rose from 2.8% in December 2021 to 6.2% in January.
However, OCS research director Katherine Jacobs says that the numbers need to be placed in context. “It should be emphasized that all of the numbers in this bulletin are unadjusted for seasonality. Looking at January 2022 compared to January 2021, employment was up this January by 6.9% (+34,600 jobs),” she wrote.
She also wrote that the magnitude of the unemployment increase “is due to an increase in the construction labour force (+11,500 workers) compared to December alongside the decline in employment.”
Ontario’s general unemployment rate increased from 5.3% in December 2021 to 7.4% in January 2022, OCS reported. The January unemployment rate is down however compared to January 2021, when the rate was 10.2%.