Labour Market Insights
How COVID-19 Is Changing Job Search and Demand in Windsor-Essex
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues on, we’re taking a look at what jobs people are interested in and what jobs companies are looking to fill in Windsor-Essex for the month of April 2020.
The unemployment rate for the Windsor CMA for April 2020 was 12.9%, the highest in Ontario.
According to the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey for April 2020, Accommodation and Food Services was down 15% from March in Windsor-Essex. Employment in this sector was fairly steady in the months previous to the COVID-19 crisis and is down a total of 33% from February 2020.
Users on our job finding tools were down 11.9% to 5,638 users in April 2020 from 6,401 users in March 2020. April saw 955 new job postings for the month, which is down 45% from 1,740 new jobs postings in March. The number of companies posting jobs has also declined 21% from 1,614 in March to 1,273 in April. All of this can likely be attributed to the continuing impacts of COVID-19 on businesses.
Of those users interacting on the Jobs Board, 14.7% were ages 15-24, 18.6% were 25-34, 22.2% were 35-54, 8.4% were 55-64, 1.2% were 64-74, and 0.2% were under the age of 15. A total of 34.8% did not note their age.
The top five occupations receiving the most interactions for April 2020 were: Retail Salespersons; Administrative Assistants; Home Support Workers, Housekeepers and Related Occupations; Other Customer and Information Services Representatives; and Delivery and Courier Service Drivers.
While March 2020 saw Cooks as third on the Top Five Searched Occupations list, receiving 420 interactions in March, it dropped to number 15 in April with 177 interactions. This could be attributed to restaurants closing or reducing their hours during the COVID-19 pandemic and is consistent with the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey results for the Accommodation and Food Services sector.
The top ten in-demand occupations for April 2020 were: Retail Salesperson; Home Support Workers, Housekeepers and Related Occupations; Nursery and Greenhouse Workers; Other Customer and Information Services Representatives; Transport Truck Drivers; Material Handlers; Administrative Assistants; Security Guards and Related Security Service Occupations; Delivery and Courier Service Drivers; and Light Duty Cleaners.
The demand for Cooks decreased from 76 postings in March to 50 postings in April.
The top in-demand occupations are very much in line with what the Ontario government has deemed as essential workplaces. Other top occupations, such as Administrative Assistants, are likely able to work from home. The week of April 12, 2020 also saw an additional 3.3 million Canadians working from home, as per the Labour Force Survey Results.
Provincially, Ontarians are working 28.1% less hours than they were the previous month, according to Statistics Canada.
If you are interested in and able to work in an essential workplace in Windsor-Essex, join the Essential Worker Registry. If you are qualified to work in the health sector, visit the Ontario Government’s Workforce Matching Portal where the government is taking a lead role in coordination.
THE FINDINGS OF THIS REPORT WERE SOURCED FROM:
MONTHLY JOB DEMAND REPORT
ABOUT THIS REPORT:
As of April 2019, the monthly Job Demand Report for Windsor-Essex is created by Workforce WindsorEssex using data collected from 14 unique national, provincial and locally-significant job boards. Between May 2017 and March 2019, job posting data was purchased from CEB Talent Neuron.
MONTHLY JOB SEARCH REPORT
The monthly Job Search Report for Windsor-Essex is created by Workforce WindsorEssex using data collected from four job finding tools, including WEexplore, WEmap jobs, WEjobs board, and the Bridge Timeline Tool. Gender and age information of users is voluntarily shared with the organization.
Questions? Please contact: info@workforcewindsoressex.com.
