Sudbury Lost 5,000 Jobs in 2015

Workers in the Greater Sudbury area felt the economic pinch during 2015 as Statistics Canada announced on Friday that the city lost some 5,000 jobs (a 2.4 per cent rise) through last year.

It was a worrying close to 2015 for Sudbury too, with unemployment rising for the sixth consecutive month, moving to 8.4 per cent from 8.2 per cent in November. It will not make happy reading for workers to see that Sudbury is currently an exception in Ontario at the moment as the province was the only one in Canada to see jobs growth in December. Province wide there were 35,000 new jobs, with unemployment falling to 6.7 per cent, a 0.2 per cent decline, but in Sudbury it is a different story.

Between November and December 900 jobs were lost in Sudbury. Statistics Canada announced monthly figures showing 79,300 people were working full or part-time in the Greater Sudbury metropolitan area (CMA) during December, down from 80,200 in November. The number of Greater Sudbury’s workforce also fell to 86,600, down from 87,400.

Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce released its Ontario Economic Update 2016 in December, acknowledging in the process that 2015 had been a rocky year in terms of employment levels. However, the Chamber is confident that growth will arrive this year, although it is predicted be slow:

“Over the next two years, Sudbury can expect roughly 0.5 per cent employment growth per year, with government services, retail-wholesale trade, and manufacturing each contributing,” the chamber said in a release. “The unemployment rate will improve slightly over the next two years as population outflows are offset by a modest rise in the labour force participation rate.”

“Greater Sudbury experienced a difficult year in 2015, but the next two years are projected to be more positive,” Karen Hourtovenko, chair of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, said in a release. “I am hopeful for the future of Greater Sudbury. Despite being a difficult year, we also saw examples of great local success stories. The best way to drive economic growth moving forward will be to make strategic investments in infrastructure, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology.”