London-St. Thomas jobless rate falls to 4.9% in June, participation rate now the worst in Canada

A week after Mayor Ed Holder declared a jobs crisis in the city, London‘s unemployment rate has dipped slightly.

Stats Canada says the jobless rate fell to 4.9 per cent in June, it stood at 5 per cent in May. However, the dip wasn’t the result of new jobs in the city. In fact, 900 jobs were lost last month.

The total number of jobs, the labour force and the number of people claiming unemployment all fell in June.

As did the city’s participation rate. It now stands at 57.3 per cent, the worst in the country.

Last month, Mayor Holder said London was in the midst of a jobs crisis and launched a job board to help people find work. The board was inspired by a similar initiative in Windsor.

Holder says the problem in the city isn’t that there are no jobs, the problem is connecting job seekers with employers.

Nationally, Statistics Canada says the economy lost 2,200 jobs in June compared with the addition of 27,700 jobs in May.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.5 per cent compared with 5.4 per cent in May.

On a year-over-year basis, employment was up by 421,000 or 2.3 per cent.

In Ontario, employment was little changed following two consecutive monthly increases. The unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 5.4 per cent as more people searched for work.