May 2024
In May 2024, the Hamilton CMA saw their population of working-age individuals (those aged 15 and over) grow by 1,500 persons or by 0.22%. More people were also contributing to Hamilton’s labour force in May, with an increase of 4,500 actively participating in the labour force (either employed or unemployed status). Employment in the region also added 2,400 workers from the 4,500 newly participating labour force members.
Unemployment
Despite the 2,400 added to the employed population, Hamilton continues to see a rising unemployment rate and unemployed population. In May 2024, the unemployment rate for the CMA increased by 0.4 percentage points to 7% – the highest it has been in 2024. In tandem, the unemployed population increased by 2,000 workers. Gains in unemployment were mainly spearheaded by the male youth group, which saw an additional 500 in unemployment. Next were core-working females (25-54) and older workers (55-64) which both saw an additional 400 in unemployment. Mitigating some of the unemployment was the female youth group, which saw their unemployment rate decline by 0.5 percentage points to 13.3%.
Labour Force
Looking at the labour force characteristics for both the total population and Youth population in Hamilton, there were some trends that emerged in May 2024. Following a similar trend to the total labour force, Hamilton’s Youth labour force grew in tandem in terms of employment and unemployment. But, still boasts an unemployment rate more than double that of the general population, with a difference of 8.3%.
Industries
Based on industry changes from April to May 2024, the largest growing industry in the Hamilton CMA was Business, Building and Other Support Services which had a 20% increase in employment. Following was Professional, Scientific and Technical Services with an increase of 6%. Information, Culture, Recreation also saw an employment gain of 5% in May. The top growing industries for last month were all concentrated in the Services-Producing Sector. In comparison, the top declining industry in the Hamilton CMA was Transportation and Warehousing, which saw an employment contraction of 6%. Following was Utilities (-5%), and Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (-4%).
Occupations
From Workforce Planning Hamilton’s Job Board, the top in-demand job for May 2024 were Registered Nurses. Which, compared to last month, saw job demand grow by over 45% as job postings topped at 350. Following were various occupations in Retail. Three out of the five in-demand jobs for May were considered living wage jobs, or those that paid at $20.80/hour or more.
Happy Pride Month, Hamilton!
June marks Pride Month, a month dedicated to celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride. According to the 2021 Census of Population, approximately 1 million people in Canada were part of the LGBTQ2IA+ community.
According to the 2021 Census of Population, there were 2,630 same gender, transgender or non-binary (married or common-law) couples in the Hamilton CMA. From this, 1,310 were married and 1,325 were common-law. Check out our latest post on Pride Month here!