January 2024

Home UncategorizedJanuary 2024

Labour Force
In January 2024, the Hamilton CMA saw the population grow by 0.2% – leading to an additional 138,200 persons into the region – with the labour force consequently growing by 0.5%. However, much of the labour force growth was attributed to the rise in unemployed persons at an increase of 8.5%. For January, unemployment outpaced employment, as there were virtually no changes in employment seen for the month.


The rise in unemployment led to a 0.4% increase in the unemployment rate, which rose from 5.6% to 6% in January. Among the 37 CMAs in Ontario, the Hamilton CMA had the 11th highest unemployment rate and was among the 18 CMAs to see increases in unemployment against the national trend of a declining unemployment rate. Following, the employment rate declined as there were more unemployed persons in the population than employed, declining by 0.2%. With robust population growth, more persons were participating in the labour force, with the labour force participation rate increasing by 0.2%.


Demographic Changes for January 2024
Among the population, Hamilton’s youth population (15-24) grew by 2.5%, with 73% of youths entering the labour force and 27% not in the labour force. Among the youths in the labour force, 2,500 were employed in January, an increase of 4.7% from December. Full-time employment for youth declined in January, with youths back into education/training and part-time employment greatly outpaced part-time employment, with a rise of 15.5% since last month. The youth unemployment rate declined by 1.5% to 9.2% in January, with a rise in labour force participation as well by 0.4%.

The age group driving the unemployment rate was the core-working age group (25-54), with an 8.9% rise in unemployment among this demographic which greatly outpaced the minor 0.3% in employment. This increase in unemployed persons also drove the unemployment rate for the age group to increase by 0.4% to 4.8%.


Industries
In January 2024, the Hamilton CMA’s Services-producing sector saw an employment gain of 1% and the Goods-producing sector saw an employment decline of 3%. Spearheading most of the employment declines were the region’s Construction, Manufacturing and Agriculture sectors which all saw employment losses of 3% from December to January. With seasonal employment most prevalent in these industries, employment is heavily affected by seasonal trends and conditions.


The industries which saw the largest gains in employment for January were Accommodation and Food Services and Utilities (14%), and Public Administration (6%). Rebounding from a rough employment situation in 2023, wherein the industry lost 25% of employment from 2022 to 2023, rise in employment among Hamilton’s Accommodation and Food Services is promising as the industry contributes greatly to the economic and cultural landscape of the City.


Job Demand
In January 2024, there were over 6,400 job postings for the Hamilton region. With a 48% increase in new job postings and over 2,000 hiring employers. Most employers were looking to hire for full-time, permanent positions.

The top occupations employers were hiring for included Registered Nurses, Retail Salespersons, Admin Assistants, Food Service jobs and Home Support/Personal Support workers. Of the top five occupations, 3 out of 5 were pegged as living wage occupations – or occupations which paid above the living wage rate of $20.80/hour.
Top employers for the month included McMaster University, Hamilton Health Sciences, the City of Hamilton, St. Joseph’s Health Care and independent Kijiji contractors/employers.


Feature: Black History Month
Hamilton is home to a diverse community, with individuals from all ethnicities and walks of life. With this, Hamilton’s Black community has played a large part in shaping the cultural and labour landscape.
From 2016 to 2021, Hamilton’s Black population increased by 40% to 28,415 and making up 5% of our total population. In 2021, 23% of Black Hamiltonians worked in Health Care, followed by Manufacturing (10%), Retail Trade (9%) and Transportation and Warehousing (7%).

By occupations, Black Hamiltonians worked in Sales and Service-related occupations (26%), Health occupations (16%), the Trades (15%), Business and Finance occupations (12%), and Education and Social occupations (11%).

Black History Month is also a time to celebrate Black-owned businesses. Did you know? There were over 145,000 Black-owned businesses in Ontario.

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