Over 4,000 jobs created in northeastern Ontario since last July, says Statistics Canada

A labour force survey from Statistics Canada shows that unemployment in northeastern Ontario was at 6.5 per cent, in line with the national average of 6.4 per cent.

Last July. Canada fell to its lowest level in two years, adding 75 000 jobs across the country; 4,400 of them in the northeast. 

This month’s employment gains were concentrated in Ontario, but some groups are finding it harder to find jobs in the northeast, like youth aged 15 to 24, whose unemployment rate is at 13.8 per cent compared to the national average of 12.6 per cent. That’s still up from last year’s national and regional averages. 

The highest performing sectors are include the trades, transportation and warehousing, healthcare and social assistance, finance and insurance, and real estate and rental leasing. 

Genevieve Latour is an analyst with Statistics Canada. She said that northern Ontario “generally has a little bit higher unemployment rate than Canada as a whole”, and that regional variations are common in the Labour Force Survey. 

In the regional unemployment table used by the Employment Insurance program, which uses a three-month moving average and adjusts for seasonal differences like summer vacations, northern Ontario’s overall unemployment sits at 7.4 per cent, a whole point above the national average for this dataset. 

Latour told CBC News that employment has increased in the northeast, by 4,400 jobs, or almost 5 per cent of the total workforce. And Sudbury has seen stronger than average employment growth over the past year.

When the overall unemployment rate increases, Latour said youth are some of the “harder hit” candidates as they search for jobs “in a more difficult labour market”. 

Alexandre Pondy is a jobs counsellor at Spark Employment Services. He counsels francophone Canadian citizens and permanent residents on everything from resume preparation, to training, and landing a job in Greater Sudbury. 

People looking for work tell him they are having more difficulty finding permanent jobs. 

Pondy said he finds it especially difficult to find work for people in the technology and information sector, as companies often contract out work from major cities like Toronto and Ottawa, or even outsource abroad. 

He said another issue is the “underemployment” of qualified individuals whose diplomas or experience might not be recognized in Canada, leading them to find work in the service sector. 

According to Pondy, not using one’s degree or training can result in a loss of dignity and self-satisfaction that often results in those individuals resorting to employment insurance (EI) or other support programs. This can contribute to the overall unemployment numbers in Sudbury, which sit at a 6.2 per cent average, as the numbers from that dataset come directly from the EI program. 

Pondy said that despite new permanent residents being “very interesting and qualified”, they often have to return to school to get licenses renewed in professions that are heavily regulated by the province like teaching and nursing. 

He said that another challenge for young people is the use of artificial intelligence in screening processes. 

According to the employment counselor, today’s youth face unprecedented challenges entering the job market, particularly when navigating modern hiring technologies. 

Many struggle with career guidance and lack the knowledge to optimize their resumes or leverage artificial intelligence to tailor them to specific job descriptions. 

He said that Sudbury employers might risk missing out on qualified talent simply because automated applicant tracking systems filter out candidates based on formatting —a hurdle previous generations did not have to face. 

He said he spends a lot of time helping applicants tailor their resumes to get past the AI that most companies use for high-volume recruiting, and that lack of knowledge could translate into fewer youth landing their first careers or summer gigs.