The unemployment rate in the Stratford to Bruce Peninsula region fell .5% last month from 5.8% to 5.3%.
1,000 more people were working in Bruce, Grey, Huron and Perth Counties last month. That translates to an employment rate of 62.9%, according to The Four County Labour Market Planning.
The board says the region has seen a variety of new job opportunities, which will be in Bruce Power’s planned maintenance and inspections of its Unit 6 nuclear reactor, the opening of a new Wind Energy Centre project in Huron County, Sofina Foods Inc. plans to convert a Mitchell facility into a multi-million dollar turkey processing operation, and Canadian Bioceutical Corporation’s plans to spend up to $14-million to retrofit the former PPG plant in Owen Sound in order to partner with BioCannabis Products Ltd. to produce alternative forms of medical marijuana.
The board says fewer people were employed locally in educational services, but 7,500 more people were working in information, culture and recreation.
This region, according to Statistics Canada’s April 2015 Labour Market Bulletin, has shown “strength among the economic regions with of employment of 8,700 driven entirely by gains in full-time work."
“These are positive numbers,” says Gemma Mendez-Smith, executive director with the Four County Labour Market Planning Board. “Increased economic activity shows we are moving in the right direction.”
