Like other parts of Canada, Nipissing is being hit hard on the jobs front.
Job postings data from the first two weeks of April reveal the labour market’s continuing weakness, with declines of four per cent in the first week but 24 per cent in the next.
According to The Labour Market Group's April report, there were 169 job postings recorded for Nipissing District in the month of April.
"This continues the steep downward trend in job postings brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic," says the report. "The April figure is minus 41.1 per cent or 118 postings lower than that March total of 287 job postings. The April total is also more than half; -54 per cent (-198), of the five-year April average of 367 job postings."
The report adds with restrictions easing in early May there could be a slight bounce-back of the total number of job postings in the next month. There were just 78 unique employers posted jobs in April.
There were 93 job postings recorded for the Parry Sound district in the month of April. This figure represents the first large decrease in monthly job postings since the COVID-19 pandemic began with a minus 29 per cent decrease from March.
Of the 169 job postings in the month, 99.4 per cent were collected from online sources, and 22.5 per cent were seeking a candidate with some form of valid driver's license,.
As well, 21 per cent stated that a criminal record check would be a condition of hiring and 5 per cent were requiring a bilingual individual.
The average hourly wage in April for those postings which listed an hourly wage was $20.81.
"This is a notable increase; +6.9 per cent (+$1.34/hour), from the current 12-month average of $19.47/hour.
Of the 79 postings which listed an hourly wage 15 per cent were listed at the provincial minimum wage of $14.
The Health Care and Social Assistance industry saw the greatest number of job postings in April with 37 per cent of the overall share amongst all major industry classifications.
The greatest month-over-month job share decrease of almost six per cent was seen in the transportation and warehousing industry which represented just 3 per cent of the postings in April.
