Barrie’s unemployment rate continues to drop: Statistics Canada

Barrie’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 per cent in October, Statistics Canada says.

According to new numbers released on Friday, the city’s jobless rate dropped by 0.6 per cent, falling from 5.8 per cent recorded in September.

In March, Barrie’s unemployment rate was recorded at 8.8 per cent — a number high enough to claim the undesirable top spot in the country.

On Friday, Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman took to twitter to share the results tweeting “Barrie CMA reported 5.2% unemployment rate in October, now among the lowest in Ontario.”

According to numbers released by Statistics Canada, Barrie still has a higher unemployment rate than Hamilton, London and Guelph which recorded jobless rates at 5 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.

However, Barrie is more than 2 percentage points behind the St. Catharines-Niagara metropolitan area which had the highest jobless rate in the province in October at 7.3 per cent.