Windsor again posts Canada's highest jobless rate as unemployment climbs to 9.1%

Windsor's jobless rate was once again the highest in the country in December, as the seasonally adjusted three-month moving average rose to 9.1 per cent from 8.7 per cent in November.

That bucks a nationwide trend that saw the unemployment rate fall 0.1 percentage points to 6. 7 per cent.

Toronto was in second place at 8.4 per cent.

"In December we saw job gains in manufacturing, healthcare and social assistance areas," said Justin Falconer, the CEO of Workforce Windsor Essex. "But job losses in nearly all the other sectors."

Job seekers in the city are facing increased competition for jobs and spending longer unemployed, said Corina Jancev, the manager of integrated employment services at Women's Enterprise Skills Training (WEST) of Windsor.

WEST provides skills training, settlement support and employment help for women in the Windsor region. 

Well-qualified employees are being forced to accept positions they are overqualified for, Jancev said.

Employers, meanwhile, are finding that recruitment is taking longer because they are having to filter through a lot more applicants, Jancev said — but they're also benefiting from more available talent. 

"However, that leaves the most vulnerable individuals, multi-barrier clients, kind of at the bottom of the list on our end," she said. 

Those vulnerable individuals include some women who adhere to traditions in which women don't typically work outside the home, said Princess Small, WEST's acting manager of the settlement department.

"It's getting harder and harder to live, to have a viable household with children and a family, with just one income," Small said. "So more and more, we're seeing more people try to access the labour force."

Seasonal hiring by retailers decreasing amid online shopping: Falconer

Some of those women have advanced degrees but no Canadian experience or insufficient English, she said, so they look for entry-level customer service positions.

But those have become harder to get as people's spending power diminishes and retailers hire fewer people, Small said.

Seasonal hiring by retailers is also decreasing due to a shift to online shopping Falconer said.

Still, he said, there's reason to be optimistic.

Net employment growth in the Windsor area was zero in December, he said — meaning the unemployment rate increased because of new people moving to the area. 

The region experienced an influx of around 1,000 new working-aged people, increasing the size of the labour force to around 216,000.

"Our unemployment rate went up because we've experienced this challenge of optimism for our region," Falconer said.

"People are locating here because they're hearing the great news about, you know, NextStar and the supply chain and some of the jobs that are being created here."

Falconer said the 196,300 people currently working in the Windsor census metropolitan area makes for an all-time high for the number of people working.

He says he was pleasantly surprised to see growth in the number of health and social service workers in the city in December, he said, and he was particularly happy to see more than 2,000 more people employed in manufacturing in December, compared with November. 

"Manufacturing is really important for our region," Falconer said.

"Almost one out of five workers work in manufacturing in our region. It's often good pay with benefits, and it's real stable income for a lot of families," he said. "So when we see that sector grow, it's always good news in our region, even if some others are slipping."

Falconer said he expects employment to increase in January as managers who held off on hiring over the holiday season post new jobs. 

WEST will hold a job fair on Jan. 21 featuring 10 employers, Jancev said.