Ontario unemployment rate just dropped to the lowest number it's been in decades

Canada may have seen its second-worst unemployment rate in recorded history over the course of the pandemic, but it seems that people are finally back on their feet, according to the latest figures from StatCan.

The government agency has released its latest Labour Force Survey, and while employment is up slightly nationwide, Ontario is boasting a pretty impressive return to work compared to other provinces.

While employment numbers declined in Manitoba (by only 0.6 per cent, mind you) last month and remained steady in most of the remainder of the country, it increased in both Ontario and PEI compared to the month prior.

A total of 33,000 people were hired in full- and part-time positions across Ontario in April, marking an uptick of 0.4 per cent, which drove our unemployment rate down to 4.9 per cent — the lowest it's been in the province since October 1989, StatCan says.

139k new jobs in Ontario over the last year, 38k in the last month. Unemployment at lowest level since the 1980s. The labour market is excellent -- from the point of view of workers' bargaining power. From the point of view of employers? Not so much.

— Doug Allan (@Leftwords) May 8, 2023

Interestingly, this workforce growth wasn't focused in the big city, where the unemployment rate "was little changed at 5.5 per cent," the report notes.

Instead, unemployment was lowest in the city of Guelph, where it now sits at just 3.3 per cent, followed by Thunder Bay, with 3.9 per cent.

This is compared to Windsor, which has the highest unemployment rate in the province at 6.7 per cent, and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, which saw a rise in unemployment from 5.9 per cent to 6.1 per cent between March and April 2023.

April 2023 Labour Market Report
-Canada Unemployment Rate 5%
-Ontario Unemployment Rate 4.9%
-Toronto Unemployment Rate 5.5%

[Source: Statistics Canada] pic.twitter.com/AJCXYYu5TA

— Daniel Dimacali (@DanielDimacali) May 8, 2023

PEI, meanwhile, experienced a whopping 2.5 per cent jump in employment, though this represents only 2,200 workers and the province's unemployment rate is 7.1 per cent, much higher than Ontario's.