More Local Labour Market Information

Labour Market Bulletin, First Quarter 2005
An Analysis of the Windsor and Essex County Area Labour Market
Human Resource Centre of Canada

An overview of the Windsor & Essex County labour market.

The Windsor area labour market experienced a sharp contraction in the first quarter of 2005. Labour force and employment levels fell by about 6,000 people each. This was the largest quarterly drop in employment in 10 years.

Because labour force and employment levels fell by similar amounts, the unemployment rate showed only a modest increase, to 9.4% from 9.2% last quarter.

The unemployment rate has been trending upwards since the fourth quarter of 2003. It was the third highest among Canada’s 27 CMAs this quarter.

Highlights:

The closure of General Chemical, at one time Amherstburg’s largest employer, left 100 hourly and salaried staff out of work.
Another major Amherstburg employer, Diageo Canada , experienced a labour dispute this quarter. Due to a shortage of work at this company, almost 150 production workers were indefinitely laid off in February.
A labour dispute affecting almost 400 workers at Butcher Engineering, began February 18 th and had not yet been resolved as this quarter ended. This employer packages after-market car parts for Ford Motor Co.
Devonshire Mall is undertaking interior renovations and hosting a number of events to attract families and shoppers alike. Two more retail stores – Home Sense and JYSK – will be added to the Walker Square area, another major shopping hub.
Windsor was the first Ontario city to launch Q – a new approach to retail offering quality foods and express service at a convenient roadside location.
Mexican and Jamaican government satellite offices were scheduled to open this quarter to provide a liaison between employers and their off-shore seasonal agricultural workers.

The complete Labour Market Bulletin, including these Highlights, is available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, print version (size: 332 kb)

To obtain this Labour Market Bulletin in .html format, please use the Contact Us button at the top of this page. In your email subject line, please refer to the Labour Market Bulletin and the publication date: (e.g. Windsor - 1st Quarter 2005)