SUDBURY—Canada’s unemployment rate stood at 5.7 percent in January according to data, declining slightly in its first drop since December 2022 as the nation added 37,000 new jobs according to a recent report from Statistics Canada. Economists have long cited six percent as the “full employment” benchmark for the nation. That news is not great for those seeking to hire new employees, or for those banking on a drop in interest rates.
Coming on the heels of the StatsCan release, Workforce Planning Sudbury and Manitoulin (WPSM) has published its Local Labour Market Plan. While the numbers in the plan are comfortably solid for Sudbury, WPSM Executive Director Reggie Caverson said some caution must be taken when looking at the Manitoulin numbers due to the small population density and the way Statistics Canada reports its data.
According to the report, in 2021-2022 there was a net increase of nine firms with employees (compared to a decline of 28 firms in 2020-2021) and a decline of seven firms without employees (compared to 2020-2021’s increase of 26 firms).
There was no net change in any industry among firms with 100 or more employees, but among firms with 20-99 employees the biggest change was in the Public Administration sector, which appears to be due to a drop in the number of establishments in Aboriginal Public Administration.
Overall, Ms. Caverson notes that Manitoulin’s employment profile is dominated by the self-employed.
“There are 62 percent of firms indicating they have no employees other than the owner,” she pointed out. “About 400 have one or more employees.”
The good news is there was growth in the number of establishments in agriculture, forestry, fishing and farming, construction and real estate, rental and leasing, either among firms with zero employees or one to 19 employees.
On the down side, there were larger declines among firms with zero employees in retail trade, professional, scientific and technical services and accommodation and food services.
The main story seems to be that there has been some recovery in Manitoulin from the decline experienced in 2020-21
The number one employment sector in the Manitoulin District is real estate, rental and leasing sector, employing 133 in companies with zero employees, 10 employed in businesses reporting one to four employees, one reporting 10-19 employees and one employing 20-49.
Second on the scale is the agricultural sector, employing 113 with zero employees with the largest other group falling in the one to four employee column (14). Third up is retail trade with 48 having zero employees (25 report one to four employees, 30 reporting five to nine employees), construction came in fourth with 56 reporting zero employees and 34 employed at companies with one to four employees. Fifth was accommodation and food reporting 53 with zero employees and 12 employees at companies with one to four employees—sixth is a catch-all “other services.”
Like most other areas of the country, Manitoulin’s major stumbling block to new hires has been reported as being securing accommodation for incoming workers.
Ms. Caverson noted that the WPSM Job Board has been quite active in recent months. Their job board aggregates 30 job banks across the Manitoulin and Sudbury Districts to provide a broad reach for employers. Among those being included in the WPSM bank is data from The Expositor’s own job board.
The mandate of Workforce Planning for Sudbury & Manitoulin (WPSM) is to identify labour market changes, trends and issues that impact on local economies, workforce development, business growth, training, and employment.
