LONDON, ONT. -- London’s unemployment rate held steady at 7.0 per cent in March, however the latest report from Statistics Canada comes ahead of Ontario’s third lockdown.
Due to the timing of the report it does not capture what affect the latest lockdown and stay-at-home order may have on London and surrounding regions.
Those numbers will likely be better reflected in the May and June reports.
In February the unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent, meaning that number climbed slightly by 0.1 per cent.
Meanwhile the employment rate rose slightly as well to 58.9 per cent which indicates more people obtained or began looking for work in the past month.
Nationally the unemployment rate fell 0.7 per cent to 7 .5 per cent, which is the lowest level seen since before the pandemic began.
Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec led the way with most of the gains seen in recovery industries such as retail and food services.
The economy added roughly 175,000 full time positions and 128,000 part time positions.
The largest gains were seen in the private sector with 201,000 of the new jobs added.
