By Tom ParkinOntario’s unemployment rate continued to run well above the rest of Canada in August, as it has now for more than two years, according to seasonally-adjusted data released by Statistics Canada Friday morning.
In April 2023 rates of unemployment in Ontario and Canada sat at 5.0 per cent. But over the past 29 months, Ontario unemployment has grown to 7.7 per cent while in the rest of Canada the rate has increased 6.7 per cent.
True unemployment rate unclear as 41,000 give up hope
Officially, 807,000 Ontario workers were unemployed in August, according to Statistics Canada. But the true number appears to be perhaps 40,000 higher.
Ontario’s labour market participation rate hit a new low as 41,000 Ontario workers left the job market. Because workers are giving up faster than than jobs are being lost, the official Ontario unemployment rate ticked down 0.2 percentage points in August.
But if the labour market hadn’t shrunk by 41,000 workers last month, Ontario’s unemployment rate would have hit 8.1 per cent.
Media elite continues unconcerned, Ford offers stunts
Auto towns Windsor and Oshawa have the highest rates of unemployment in Ontario at 11.1 and 9.0 per cent, respectively. Toronto, where the local economy has been depressed by unaffordable cost of living, has the third highest jobless rate at 8.8 per cent.
As in previous months, the Toronto Star’s coverage of Toronto’s rising unemployment has been limited to national stories written by Canadian Press. CBC Toronto and the Toronto Sun both do not appear to have posted a story about today’s jobs numbers. Global Toronto assigned a reporter, whose report was based on the Canadian Press story.
Ontario’s economic weakness has been years in the making, and without media attention, the Ontario premier has faced no penalty for inaction. Now into a third year of rising unemployment, Ontario premier Doug Ford is yet to provide a strategy to create jobs.
Premier Ford pouring the contents of a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey onto the ground.
But this week the premier did offer a stunt for news TV cameras, pouring out a bottle of of rye whisky after a Windsor-area bottling plant announced it would shift jobs to the United States. The company’s planned job cuts remained unaffected.
And media was there a week before when Premier Ford announced the Volkswagen battery plant originally announced in 2023 is still going ahead. Less attention from media or Ford has focused on the existing Brampton and Oakville assembly plants where not one vehicle has rolled off the line in more than two years.
Labour-oriented groups and politicians setting strategy
However, some close to the labour movement are grouping together to set a plan to push jobs up the political and media agenda.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Centre for Future Work and several other jobs-focused think tanks are holding a strategy summit in Ottawa in mid-September.
And Ontario NDP finance critic Jessica Bell is convening a round table of economists and stakeholders next week to strengthen the opposition’s jobs push when the Ontario legislature returns, which the government has delayed until October.
Discussion about this post
I don’t see a futuristic leadership here…all we are occupied is with day to day problems…there will be time when people will have to leave to other countries for better opportunities and low tax as many started doing…
None of these companies here or in plan…EV, clean energy, AI centres, chip, software companies, cybersecurity etc…oh by the way we let RIM aka BlackBerry have a slow death…no real company or futur except all eyes on natural resources which come with a big social and environmental side impact those who know will tell you the real impact…politician and bureaucrat will tell other stories…
I see the future of Canada dark unfortunately 🙁
Tom, Ted and Graham
You are all full of doom and gloom.
You could be right about Ford’s & Carney’s policies not being the right answers for these times.
I don’t know if they are or not. Only time will tell.
But what I do know is none of you put forward any alternatives.
How would you deal with the economic downturn and the rising level of unemployment caused by the US tariffs. What policies would you implement?
Please share !
Realistically, economic growth and the standard of living are going to stagnate for the next decade; only if we are lucky and get a change in US trade policy following the US midterms next year or more likely following the next presidential election is this likely to change.
Meanwhile, we are forced to reset the direction of the Canadian economy and this will undoubtedly focus on the export of raw materials, including oil & gas, to countries other than the USA. Unfortunately, this will take at least a decade, assuming we are to make almost an immediate start on the investment that is needed although I don’t believe the present Liberal government, despite its rhetoric, is up to the challenge. Sadly, we are paying for an overreliance on the US market and a lost decade in which the development of our natural resources has been severely hindered by the ideological priorities of the Liberal Party and its soulmates in the NDP.
Well Philip, that is quite interesting but I am confused. You posted your comment as a reply to my post. Is there a reason you did that rather than just post directly as you didn’t address the question I asked of Tom, Ted and Graham. Your comment stated what we all know and ended in an anti-Liberal rant. No suggestion of an alternative way forward.
Bruce the country is in a crisis. A few thoughts come to mind.
Immediately stop funding the proxy war in the Ukraine. Divert cash to buying military hardware. Eventually we can be a serious country again.
Slash immigration and foreign student visas and raise the minimum wage country wide.
Drop the preoccupation with Europe. Its pure diversion. 100% concentration has to be trade stability with the USA and China.
And why hasn’t European citizen Carney finalized the long standing draft agreements with the UK & Europe. Obviously there are issues like the dairy cartel.
Slash foreign aid & funding of many special interests.
Permanently remove the consumer & industry carbon taxes and EV mandates with legislation.
Deport immediately those non citizens (not citizens or landed immigrants) convicted of serious crimes. Obviously bail reform is needed & additional penal facilities.
Streamline regulatory approvals particularly for natural gas projects & mining & refining of metals.
Slash the size of all levels of government.
Eliminate the RCMP. Divert resources to provincial policing.
Strengthen CSIS.
Mandate that provinces dramatically increase education programs for training citizens as nurses and doctors.
A one Canada wide building code! Reduce taxes on builders.
Provide incentives to businesses to invest particularly in domestic refining of base metals. We can’t rely on Vale(Inco) or Glencore( Falconbridge) etc.
Similar incentives are needed for steel & aluminum.
A complete reset of indigenous relations is needed or nothing will be built either in a timely or affordable manner. (I have done senior commercial work on multiple projects involving same) Ford was right on this subject and was immediately eaten alive.
Interesting
Do you appreciate that if Ukraine falls Putin will then target Moldova. And then subvert Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Same scenario as WWII.
Slashing foreign studens. Why ? I guess the “benefits” of that are that universities and colleges will have to cut all their programs because they don’t have the income anymore and so Canadian students won’t have access either. Great benefits !
So you are advocating being at the beck & call and whims of the Orange Man and the Chinese who have shown their willingness to imprison our citizens to force Canada to bend the knee.
What is your definition of a “serious crime”?
What is your idea of streamlining regulatory approvals for pipelines etc?
Many parts of Canada have no local or Provincial police forces and rely totally upon the RCMP.
A single building code nationwide will be a fantastic position to be in. But that is not for the federal government to decide. Unfortunately! Building codes are a Provincial jurisdiction. If you think any of the Provinces are going to give up their jurisdiction to the federal government, no matter how great an idea it is, you are naive. it’s not going to happen.
I would like to see a much much stronger Federal government and much weaker Provincial governments. The present setup makes Canada very weak. Basically we are a collection of 13 different countries. The federal government only has authority over the national economy and foreign affairs.
What is your idea of a reset with indigenous people? They cannot be ignored and overridden. Neither can the treaties signed with them by Canada. If you are advocating doing either get ready for many, many Okas & Caledonias.
Can’t disagree with anything Tom and Graham have said. Ford is preoccupied with stunts and the federal response is to extend EI benefit coverage and start planning projects that will be decades in the making if they are developed at all.
This will not end well.
The reality is that the USA will never sign another CUSMA deal with Canada like the current one.More large job losses are inevitable.Even if major projects in natural resources move ahead it will take years to even get them started.We have over many years benefited by branch plant jobs created by Foreign Direct Investment.This source is drying up already and new FDI in manufacturing for export to USA is dead.
Ford has done nothing of substance for the Ontarians who elected him. Healthcare is still a shambles. The Science Center did not collapse under the assault of one of the worst storms in recent memory. Taxpayers have been betrayed by a 99 year lease of the most valuable land in Ontario. Crime, joblessness , homelessness and affordable housing have seen no acrion other than lip service and promises. Very similar to his first 2 terms. I would have hoped we were smarter than American voters. Apparently not.