London-St. Thomas jobless rate rises to 6.5% in September

London’s jobless rate rose for the third straight month in September.

Stats Canada reports the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 per cent last month even though the local economy created 2,900 jobs. The increase is due to the fact both the labour force and the number of people claiming unemployment also increased.

Over the past two months, 7,000 jobs have been created in London.

The city’s labour participation rate also ticked up slightly to 59 per cent, but continues to be one of the worst in the country.

Nationally, 54,000 jobs were created in September. Statistics Canada says the national unemployment rate dipped slightly to 5.5 per cent. The jobs growth was largely concentrated in the health-care sector, and notes gains in the number of public-sector and self-employed workers.

The report says 70,000 of the new jobs were full-time, as the number of part-time workers declined.

The agency’s latest labour force survey says the country saw a rush last month of 49,400 new positions in services industries, but a drop of 21,000 jobs in the private sector.

Young workers aged 15 to 24 years old saw drops in the ranks of full- and part-time workers, inching their unemployment rate to 11.9 per cent, not all that dissimilar from the same time one year ago.

Compared with a year earlier, the numbers show Canada added 456,000 jobs, for an increase of 2.4 per cent.

With files from the Canadian Press