Across the Canada there has been two consecutive months of employment growth as businesses begin to reopen. In June, Canada saw job gains of nearly one million (41% of jobs returning).
June showed the first increases in jobs in Ontario since the pandemic started four months ago - an increased by 377,900 jobs. At this point only one-third of the jobs have been recovered. In Hamilton there was still a decrease in employment in June (four straight months). It was a smaller decrease than previous months with a loss of 11,000 jobs. . In total Hamilton has seen decline of 56,900 jobs since the pandemic started, a decrease of 13%, and the number of unemployed have increased to from 21,900 to 51,000.
The unemployment rates are still very high. The jobless rates are in Ontario is 12.2% and 12.1% in Hamilton, near historic highs. Ontario saw has seen an increase in the labour force and employment rates as people are starting to enter the labour force. The chart below depicts labour force characteristics for Ontario and Hamilton throughout the entire pandemic to the present.
* Please note:
There was a three-month lag in Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area’s data. This was the first month that data was available because the three months are since the pandemic started in March.
During June Ontario started Phase 2 of its economic openings but Hamilton did not enter until later in the month and the survey may have been conducted before Hamilton entered Phase 2
