Oshawa claims Ontario’s worst unemployment at 8.5 per cent, trailing only Kelowna, B.C. nationally

Oshawa has climbed from number four in Ontario to the shared top spot in a ranking city officials would rather have no part of.

The city’s unemployment rate actually remained unchanged in June at 8.5 per cent, good for the highest in Ontario (shared with Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge) and number two in Canada behind Kelowna, B.C.’s 9.2 per cent.

In May Oshawa’s 8.5 per cent unemployment rate trailed Kitchener, London and Barrie – each at 8.7 per cent – but London and Barrie saw their numbers decline to 8.2 per cent.

Kelowna, with an unemployment rate of nine per cent also led the nation in May, while London had the highest unemployment rate in April (9.2 per cent, shared with Barrie) and March (9.1 per cent).

The rest of the cities in Ontario for the worst unemployment rates in June include Windsor at eight per cent, Guelph at 7.5 per cent, Toronto at 7.2 per cent, Ottawa 6.9 per cent, Hamilton, 6.9 per cent, Belleville-Quinte West 6.7 per cent and Peterborough, Brantford and Greater Sudbury, each at 6.4 per cent.

Nationally, Abbotsford-Mission, B.C slotted in behind Oshawa and Kitchener at 8.3 per cent and Moncton, N.B. had the eighth-highest unemployment in Canada at 7.9 per cent, with Red Deer, Alberta and Nanaimo, B.C. in tenth at 7.4 per cent.

Toronto’s 7.2 unemployment rate is down from the 7.6 per cent it recorded in May.

The biggest drop was registered by Nanaimo, which went from 8.5 per cent in May to 7.4 per cent oner month later.

The national unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent. Statistics Canada, which releases the seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities, cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples.