Job market continues to rebound

London-St. Thomas jobless rate records third consecutive drop, falls to 8.9 per cent in September

ACCORDING TO FIGURES released from Statistics Canada on Friday morning, the region’s job market continued to rebound last month, as the London-St. Thomas unemployment rate improved to 8.9 per cent in September from 9.3 per cent in August.

Since the outset of the pandemic, the unemployment rate peaked at 12.6 per cent in June before it fell to 10.5 per cent in July.

A total of 4,200 jobs were added in September, significantly fewer than the 6,900 jobs added in August.

The labour force increased by 3,300 people while 900 fewer people claimed unemployment.

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The London-St. Thomas participation rate, which measures the proportion of the working-age population that is working or looking for work, climbed to 61.5 per cent in September from 60.8 per cent in August.

Nationally, Canada added 378,000 net new jobs in September. The gain, which was far stronger than the 156,600 new jobs economists expected, brings employment to within 720,000 of its level in February, before the novel coronavirus pandemic took hold in Canada.

Country-wide the unemployment rate dropped for the fourth consecutive month, declining 1.2 percentage points to nine per cent.