700,000 Ontario workers without a job - Does anybody care?

By Tom Parkin

August 11th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

A steady rise in unemployment starting in April 2023 has left over 700,000 Ontario workers without a job as the province’s unemployment rate has soared from 5.0 per cent to 7.9 per cent, but you’d be forgiven for think that story is a media nothingburger.

In marked contrast to the breathless reporting of how U.S. President Trump’s tariffs might hurt jobs, Ontario’s elite doesn’t show much concerned for the 700,000 workers who right now can’t find a job.

Ontario is in trouble. In only one of the past 65 months has Ontario’s unemployment rate been lower than Canada’s. Ontario retail sales are lower than in 2022. Last year’s GDP growth lagged the rest of Canada. We’ve had a house market boom and bust.

Does anybody care?

After gaslighting voters into believing “it’s all happening here” it seems the PC government believes tunnels under the 401, a never-never plan for the Ring of Fire and other childish fantasies are enough to live on. The Ontario government has taken no policy response to two years of growing unemployment. It has not even been acknowledged in any government press release.

Sure, the Ford government doesn’t want to draw attention to growing joblessness on ors watch. But it gets away with it because of the silence of the media, stakeholders and much of its opposition.

The Toronto Sun can be expected to ignore any issue embarrassing for Doug Ford. But Toronto Star editors evidently also believe there’s nothing much newsworthy in Ontario’s jobs crisis. On the release of Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Surveys in May, June and July, the Star ran a boilerplate Canadian Press story without mention of Ontario’s jobless rate.

Toronto’s unemployment hit a new peak at 9.0 per cent in July — and the Toronto Star didn’t even report on it.

The media silence echoes the rest of the Ontario elite. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce posted no comment to Friday’s continued job decline. Nor did the Toronto Board of Trade. Nor did the Ontario Liberal Party.

To their credit, the Ontario NDP issued a press release on Friday calling on the Ford government to take “stronger measures to create and protect good, stable jobs.” But that and the mention of 2,800 jobs lost in July was as far as they took it.

The 2,800 jobs lost in July is just a bit of the story. Ontario has lost 40,000 jobs since February. The unemployment rate has increased from 5.0 per cent to 7.9 per cent. Now 700,000 people are jobless. In two years, Doug Ford has done nothing about this mounting jobs crisis except to hide. Calling on him to take stronger measures and omitting the most damaging data misses the chance to lead.

The Ontario elites can shrug about unemployment, and why wouldn’t they. The 700,000 jobless Ontarians is just a weird factoid that doesn’t fit their aesthetic: expressing distaste of Donald Trump. And after all, a good dose of unemployment keeps labour costs down, as long as it’s not their kid without a job.

Fixing 700,000 jobless a priority for labour and NDP

But the labour movement and the NDP can never be complacent about unemployment, because it is very literally their job to represent workers and build a strong economy for them. When 700,000 workers are idle, every working family and Ontario as a whole is weakened.

Doug Ford’s silence on unemployment is NDP leader Marit Stiles’ chance to lead. And perhaps it’s a chance to shake business lobbies and media out of their elite summer stupor — maybe even to earn their grudging respect. The NDP’s strategy of trying to be a media crowd-pleaser certainly isn’t working.

Complaints about Doug Ford fall into the abyss. He’s a lazy leader, specially crafted for the comfortable class, much enamoured of himself, and addicted to scoring easy points by commentating on politics not in his jurisdiction. But he’s not held accountable for what is in his jurisdiction.

Rather than play opposition, there is a chance for Stiles to play leader. Develop and articulate the story of how Ontario fell into this hole. Publicly spend time humbly listening to worker representatives, business leaders and experts on how to climb out. Show determination to learn and be focused on what’s important. Prompt a new debate that culminates in policies that can move Ontario back toward full employment.

The economic strength of Ontario households is not a passing issue. Grab it. Nothing is more important to working people than the economic future of their province. But It’s not just good politics, it’s important.

Tom Parkin: known for his research, analysis and opinion.  His views reflect his opinions and conclusions.