Toronto has more unemployed people than the entire population of Buffalo

A new report paints a troubling picture regarding Toronto's current unemployment rate, which has continued to climb at a concerning pace over the past few years. 

Housing news outlet Better Dwelling recently crunched Statistics Canada data and found that the national unemployment rate climbed sharply in May — a shift that can largely be attributed to Toronto's gruelling job market. 

The seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate reached 6.1 per cent in May, which represents approximately 1.34 million people.

However, the situation is particularly alarming in Toronto, where the unemployment rate climbed one point in May to 7.9 per cent or 317,200 people — which roughly equates to the entire population of Buffalo. 

With this uptick in unemployment, Toronto's jobless population is now the largest outside of the pandemic spanning back at least two decades. 

Toronto has one of the highest unemployment rates among major cities in Canada https://t.co/BDlzlJgtlr

— blogTO (@blogTO) June 7, 2024

According to The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), there were 10,500 more full-time jobs in May 2024 compared to a month earlier, and a gain of 10,600 part-time positions led to an increase of 21,100 total jobs in May. 

Full-time employment was still down 26,000 jobs from the peak in July 2023 but stood 37,100 jobs above the trough in January 2024. 

To compare, the unemployment rate in Vancouver stood at 5.7 per cent in May, 5.8 per cent in Montreal, 8.5 per cent in Windsor, 7.9 per cent in St. Catharines-Niagara, 7 per cent in Hamilton, and 8.1 per cent in Calgary. 

Ontario's unemployment rate increased to 6.5 per cent in February from 6.2 per cent in January and a staggering 554,000 people were unemployed, up by 31,700 (6.1 per cent) in January.