Windsor again posts Canada's highest jobless rate as unemployment climbs to 9.1 per cent
CBC
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."
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.
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