Lack of high-paying service jobs a factor in London's 'weak' job numbers, says think tank

The Conference Board of Canada says London's "weak" job growth numbers are partly due to the fact the cityisn't benefiting from a wave of well-paying service jobs appearing in other, larger metropolitan areas.

In its analysis of the latest Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada, the non-profit think tank says employment increased on a year-over-year basis in 28 of 33 Canadian consensus metropolitan areas (CMAs).

London, meanwhile, has had the most job losses among all CMAs since June 2018.

"The economy is changing in its structure," saidAlan Arcand, the Conference Board of Canada's associate director of municipal studies.

"When you look at the data over the last five years, you're seeing a disproportionate share of [high paying service] jobs being created in cities like Toronto, Montreal [and] Vancouver. You're also seeing some of these jobs being created in proximate to Toronto."

Arcand says there's been strong job growth in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Oshawa, Hamiltonand even Guelph.

"But London is further away from Toronto, so it's not sharing in those gains."

London Mayor Ed Holder recently launched an online job board, as part of a pledge to get 13,000 more Londoners to work by the end of his four-year term.

"[That's] probably a good thing," said Arcand.

"If there are situations where there are openings and there's somebody in London with those skills, there'll probably have a better time of that matching taking place."

Holder has said that of the 78,000 people without jobs in London, 68,000 aren't actively looking for work. He says the issue isn't a lack of openings but a failure to fill them.

But Arcand says it's tough to gauge actual demand for workers.

"The job vacancy rate in London is not particularly high, it's in the same range as Windsor, which is a similarly sized city."

Arcand says the bigger issue is the lack of jobs being created. London's employment rate has increased by 4.6 per cent since Sept 2009, while Canada's has increased by 14 per cent.