Ontario’s auto and manufacturing cities are bearing the brunt of rising unemployment, with Windsor and Oshawa topping provincial and national lists as U.S. tariffs begin to bite.
Statistics Canada’s August report shows Windsor with the highest unemployment rate in the country at 11.1 per cent, up nearly a full point from July’s 10.2 per cent. Brantford, another city with a strong manufacturing base threatened by trade measures, posted the steepest climb nationwide, jumping from 7.8 per cent to 9.4 per cent.
Oshawa ranked third in Ontario at nine per cent, though its numbers improved slightly from July’s 9.7 per cent. Toronto followed at 8.9 per cent, just under last month’s nine per cent, while Guelph recorded 8.7 per cent, a sharp 1.5 per cent increase.
Elsewhere in Canada, Kamloops, B.C., reported 10.3 per cent unemployment, Edmonton 9.5 per cent, Nanaimo 8.5 per cent, Calgary 7.7 per cent and St. John, N.B., 7.6 per cent. Together, they make up the ten hardest-hit cities in August.
Not all regions fared poorly. Peterborough, Ontario, saw one of the country’s biggest improvements, dropping from 7.7 per cent to 6.1 per cent. Nationally, the unemployment rate stood at 7.1 per cent.
Statistics Canada cautioned that these figures, based on three-month moving averages for major cities, can fluctuate widely given the small sample sizes. Still, the data highlights the growing economic strain in auto and manufacturing hubs caught in the crossfire of tariff disputes.