Windsor’s jobless rate holds steady in February, but highest in Canada

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Windsor’s unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged in February, but that meant it was once again the highest in Canada.

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The city’s unemployment rate had dropped to its lowest point in December since the pandemic’s onset, at seven per cent, but then jumped by 1.2 percentage points in January. February’s rate increased by a tenth of a percentage point, from 8.2 per cent in January to 8.3 per cent last month.

Premier Doug Ford announced the end of various capacity restrictions on Valentine’s Day, effective Feb. 17.

Windsor overtook January’s unemployment leader Peterborough, which saw its rate drop from 8.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

The less-than-stellar report was expected because Statistics Canada uses a three-month rolling average to report job figures for metropolitan areas the size of Windsor. This meant the toll on the local economy of the latest round of provincial lockdowns and restriction on businesses, introduced on Jan. 5, would not be clear in real-time locally.

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Provincially and nationally, however, the picture last month was more positive.

Ontario’s jobless rate dropped to 5.5 per cent from January’s 7.3 per cent rate after adding more than 194,000 jobs. This suggests a similar bounce-back is in store for Windsor in upcoming reports as the province moves away from masking and other COVID-related restrictions.

Canada’s unemployment rate also dropped last month by a full percentage point and now stands at 5.5 per cent, lower than February 2020 and the first time it has dropped below pre-pandemic levels.

Friday’s report shows the economy is back up against what the Bank of Canada believes is full capacity and will reinforce expectations for as many as six more interest rate increases this year after the central bank began earlier this month what is predicted to be a cycle of rate hikes.