Niagara unemployment rate edges up to 6% – 2,200 fewer workers

The unemployment rate in Niagara Region nudged up from June to July to six per cent from the previous month’s 5.7 per cent.

In actual numbers, that meant the region’s labour force dropped from 232,300 workers to 230,100.

That puts the region behind the national unemployment rate which remains at 5.5 per cent, unchanged from June.

StatsCan said in Niagara, the participation rate – which means the number of people either working or actively seeking work – fell from 60.9 per cent to 60.2 per cent, indicating that job creation is slowing faster than labour market participation.

Nationally, employment fell among core-aged men aged 25 to 54 years old (-27,000; -0.4 per cent) but increased among male youth aged 15 to 24 (+13,000; +0.9 per cent). That is not unusual in the summer as student jobs are plentiful from May to September.