Good month for Sudbury jobs picture

Greater Sudbury added 200 jobs last month, lowering the city's jobless rate to 6.6 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

That's down from 6.9 per cent in July. In Ontario overall, employment increased by 44,000 in August, mostly in part-time work, and the unemployment rate held steady at 7.5 per cent, as did the national average, 7.1 per cent, unchanged from July.

“In health care and social assistance, employment rose by 60,000 in August, more than offsetting the decline in July,” StatsCan said in its release.
“Employment in this industry has been on a long-term upward trend and has increased by 2.5 per cent since August 2012.”

The number of people working in hotel and food services industries increased by 26,000 across Canada, up 3.9 per cent compared with the same period in 2012.

Employment in educational services across Canada declined by 22,000 in August and has fallen by 2.8 per cent from 12 months earlier. Sudbury recorded a significant drop in education employment for the second month in a row, although the small sample size StatsCan uses in its labour estimates calls into question whether the drop is a true reflection of the local situation.

In his monthly commentary, Laurentian University economist David Robinson said it was a good month for Sudbury, although a deeper look at the statistics showed a more complicated picture.

“Sudbury ... increased its number of jobs by only 1.7 per cent, but the population dropped by six per cent according to the Labour Force Survey,” Robinson wrote. “We are in an odd situation where the city is losing people, adding jobs more slowly than the province and still potentially suffering a labour shortage.”