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Employment in Ontario got off to a rough start in 2021. After a slight dip in December, January saw a sharp employment decline. Of the 12.3 million people aged 15 and up in the province, 7.1 million were employed. The second provincial-wide COVID-19 lockdown was likely a significant factor in unemployment rising.
Here is a quick market summary report of Ontario’s employment outlook for January 2021, compiled by our employment experts at Nova Staffing. All data is from the Ontario Government January 2021 Labour Market Report.
Employment Outlook
Employment in Ontario dropped significantly in January for the first time since May when the pandemic was at its peak. Employment declined by 2.1%, after being mostly unchanged in December. Overall, employment in January in the province was 5.4% lower than its February 2020 pre-COVID-10 levels.
Not only did employment growth slow, but unemployment also rose. Unemployment in Ontario was at 10.2% in January, rising from 9.5% in December. This was the largest percentage point increase since May. This was a Canada-wide trend, with Canada’s overall unemployment rate increased to 9.4% in January from 8.8% in December.
Employment by Age
Youth (15-24) bore the brunt of job losses in January. Employment for that age demographic fell by 9.6%, with 90,100 fewer jobs compared to December. Unemployment for youths rose to 21.8% from 20.9% the previous month.
Adult employment (25-54) also took a hit, with 51,700 fewer jobs in January. Unemployment for this demographic rose to 8.3% from 7.6% in December. Senior employment (55+) also faced job losses, with employment declining by 11,700 (0.7%) jobs in January. Unemployment for seniors rose to 8.3% from 7.2% in December.
Employment by Sector
Government restrictions on what types of businesses are deemed essential during the lockdown continued to play a role in which industries saw employment gains and losses. In January, the industry sectors with the most employment growth were Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, and Leasing (+5.8%), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (+4.8%), Manufacturing (+1.6%), and Public Administration (+0.7%).
Other sectors saw significant employment loss and were far away from pre-COVID-19 levels. The industries with the greatest employment loss were Accommodation and Food Services (-35.4%), Business, Building, and Other Support Services (-17%), Agriculture (-11.9%), and Information, Culture, and Recreation (-11.3%).
Employment by Region
Employment fell in eight of the sixteen Ontario CMAs between December 2020 and January 2021. Barrie saw the largest employment decrease (-5.4%) followed by St. Catharines-Niagara (-5.1%), Oshawa (-2.6%), Brantford (-1.8%), Guelph (-1.6%), Greater Sudbury (-1.5%), Thunder Bay (-1.3%), and Toronto (-1.1%).
Other regions in Ontario were less impacted, though, and saw employment increase. The Ottawa-Gatineau region led employment growth (+1.8%) followed by Hamilton (+1.7%), London (+1.1%), Peterborough (+1.1%), Belleville (+0.6%), Kingston (+0.5%), Windsor (+0.5%), and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (+0.1%).
Are you looking for more employment insight or staffing solutions? Contact Nova Staffing today! We’re one of the best employment agencies in the GTA and have a team of HR experts ready to help you with all of your staffing needs.
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