• COVID-19

Labour market¹

The interaction between people available and looking for work and those seeking to find persons willing to work at the market wage rate.

Labour market conditions in Peel worsened in Q2 2020 as the impact of COVID-19 response measures resulted in business closures and job losses.

When compared with Q2 2019, 62,200 fewer residents were in the labour market in Q2 2020, a decline of 6.5 per cent.

During the same period, employment fell by 15.6 per cent, representing a decline of 137,800 positions.

In the youth (15 – 24 years) segment of the labour market, employment fell by 48,600 positions, down 37.0 per cent.

91,200 positions were lost in the core working-age (25 – 64 years) group, reflecting a decline of 12.7 per cent.

Employment rate

The employment rate is the number of employed persons in a particular age group expressed as a percentage of the population in that age group.

• Peel’s quarterly average employment rate declined across all age groups in Q2 2020, as more Peel residents lost jobs due to COVID-19 response measures.
• In the youth (15 – 24 years) segment of the labour market, the employment rate fell from 52.5 per cent in Q2 2019 to 35.2 per cent in Q2 2020.
• In the core working-age (25 – 64 years) group, the rate fell significantly from 79.0 per cent to 70.0 per cent, during the same period.
• These were the lowest employment rates for each age group recorded in Peel since Peel-specific quarterly labour market data became available in 2006.

Participation rate

The participation rate is the total labour force in a particular age group, expressed as a percentage of the population in that age group.

With the deterioration in labour market conditions due to COVID-19, many residents withdrew from the labour market, resulting in declines in the quarterly average participation rate across all age groups in Q2 2020.

Relative to Q2 2019, changes in participation rates in Peel’s labour market in Q2 2020 were as follows;

• Overall (15 years and over): down from 70.2 per cent to 65.6 per cent;
• Core working-age (25 – 64 years): down from 83.6 per cent to 79.8 per cent; and
• Youth (15 - 24 years): down from 61.3 per cent to 55.2 per cent.

The participation rate for youth (15 - 24 years) was impacted the most as many in this age group work part-time and in sectors of the economy (such as retail and accommodation and food services) that were severely impacted by the COVID-19 closures.

Youth (15 - 24 years) are typically the first to be out of jobs during an economic downturn.

Employment by sector

There was pervasive loss of employment across both the goods-producing and service sectors in Q2 2020.

In the service sector, 86,600 positions were lost in the period, representing a 12.3 per cent decline, which was led by accommodation and food services (-59.2 per cent) and trade (-10.8 per cent).

Employment in the goods-producing sector declined by 27.6 per cent to 134,000 positions in Q2 2020, down from 185,100 positions recorded in Q2 2019.

Lower employment in the goods-producing sector was mainly as a result of declines in the manufacturing and construction sub-sectors, which fell by 21.3 per cent and 20.0 per cent respectively.

Employment by type

As COVID-19 response measures intensified, the declines in both part-time and full-time employment became more pronounced in Q2 2020 as follows:

• Full-time: down 10.4 per cent or -76,700 positions;
• Part-time: down 40.7 per cent or -61,100 positions.