The highest growth was for Kingston-Pembroke at 8.9% followed by the Ottawa at 4.2%. It would appear that eastern Ontario as a whole is doing quite well. The Kingston area is apparently seeing substantial residential and non-residential construction activity - including hospital and bridge construction - as well as an increase in food manufacturing. Next was Toronto at 3.4% and then nearby Kitcher-Waterloo-Barrie also at 3.4%. Lagging behind but still positive are Stratford-Bruce at 0.8% and Hamilton-Niagara at 0.6%. Thus, eastern and central Ontario edging into the Niagara peninsula have seen employment growth. The remainder - mainly Southwestern and Northern Ontario have not done well - seeing employment declines. The largest decline was London at -4.5% followed by Northeast Ontario at -2.6% , Muskoka-Kawarthas at -1.8%, the Northwest at -1.7% and then Windsor-Sarnia at -0.2%.
With respect to Northern Ontario, employment in the Northeast declined from 257,400 to 250,800 between July 2018 and 2019 while the unemployment rate rose from 6% to 6.8%. In the Northwest, employment fell from 107,800 to 106,000 while the unemployment rate rose from 4.9% to 5.6%. If there is an economic slowdown or recession in the offing, it would appear that it may already be underway in parts of Ontario.
