The London-St. Thomas unemployment rate rose in the first month of 2018.
Statistics Canada says the local economy was stagnant in January with little change in jobs but an increase in the jobless rate. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5 per cent in January, up from 6.2 per cent the month before.
The hike was driven by an increase to the labour force and the number of people claiming unemployment. An extra 900 people entered the labour force in January, the same amount of people began claiming unemployment.
London’s participation rate, which remains low, did rise slightly to start the year. The rate bumped up to 60.1 per cent after spending most of 2017 below 60 per cent. Even with the slight increase, London’s participation rate continues to be the worst in the province and among the worst in the entire country.
Nationally, the unemployment rate rose to 5.9 per cent in January. The number of jobs in Canada fell by 88,000 last month to give the labour market its steepest one-month drop in nine years.
On a year-over-year basis, employment grew by 289,000 or 1.6 per cent.
Employment in Ontario declined by 51,000 in January, entirely due to losses in part-time work. The unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent, little changed as fewer people participated in the labour market.
Adjusted to U.S. concepts, the unemployment rate in Canada was 4.9 per cent in January, compared with 4.1 per cent in the United States. The unemployment rate for both countries trended downward in the 12 months to January.
The labour force participation rate in Canada, also adjusted to U.S. concepts, was 65.5 per cent in January, compared with 62.7 per cent in the United States. On a year-over-year basis, the participation rate declined by 0.3 percentage points in Canada, while it was down 0.2 percentage points in the U.S.
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