The unemployment rate for the economic region that includes Grey and Bruce counties rose to 5.9 per cent in March, an increase of one per cent over February.
The Stratford-Bruce Peninsula region shaved 1,800 jobs last month, led by part-time losses of over 4,200. The regional economy actually added 2,400 full-time positions.
While the regional jobs data for the month the COVID-19 pandemic began to alter day-to-day life and shut down many businesses indefinitely is surprisingly positive, Four County Labour Market Planning Board executive director Gemma Mendez-Smith cautions the full impact in the region likely won't start to be seen until April's data is reported next month.
She says when you examine what happened to the labour market in March, the provincial government didn't start to limit parts of the economy down until the middle of the month and then restrictions ramped up gradually from there.
The Ontario government's first non-essential business closure order didn't come into effect until March 25.
“I think our employment numbers would be starkly different when we do this in May,” Mendez-Smith explains. “I don't think we have seen the full effects of what's going to happen yet. I think in the next couple of months we're going to see very different numbers coming out from our area.”
Meantime, Statistics Canada reported Thursday the country lost more than one million jobs in March, raising the national unemployment rate to 7.8 per cent. Over 400,000 of the jobs lost were in Ontario.