London’s jobless rate is hovering near an all-time low after Statistics Canada reported on Friday the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent in October, down from 5.2 per cent the month before.
It’s just the fourth time London’s jobless rate has been below 5 per cent. The last time it stood at 4.9 per cent was in July of 2004, it fell to an all-time low of 4.7 per cent in August of that year.
The decline in the unemployment rate isn’t the result of job creation. The London-St. Thomas region lost 300 jobs in October while 800 fewer people claimed unemployment. The drop was largely the result of a 1,100 drop in the labour force.
While London’s jobless rate is low, so is the labour participation rate. It fell for the first time in five months to 61.1 per cent and continues to be one of the lowest in the country.
London is tied with St. Catharines for the second lowest labour participation rate in the province. Only Windsor at 59.5 per cent is lower in Ontario while Saguenay, Quebec has the lowest labour participation rate in the country.
Nationally, Canada’s unemployment rate fell 0.1 per cent to return to its four-decade low of 5.8 per cent.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey says the country added 11,200 net new jobs in October, including a gain of 33,900 full-time positions, but the numbers were too low for the agency to consider them statistically significant.
The jobs report also says year-over-year average hourly wage growth, which is closely watched by the Bank of Canada, continued its steady decline in October to 2.19 per cent, its weakest reading since September 2017.
While employment was little changed in Ontario, there were fewer people looking for work, lowering the unemployment rate to 5.6 per cent. On a year-over-year basis, employment in the province rose by 83,000, due to more full-time work.
With files from the Canadian Press
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