Statistics Canada is reporting a drop in the unemployment rate for the London-St. Thomas area in November.
The jobless rate was 6.8%, down from 7.1% in October. The drop came despite the loss of 300 jobs in the area. About 800 people stopped collecting unemployment and the local labour force shrank by 1,000 people.
And while 300 jobs were lost, economist Mike Moffatt at the Ivey Business School in London says the overall picture remains positive.
"The big picture looks pretty good. Our unemployment rate is lower than the national average," says Moffatt. "Our manufacturers seem to be doing quite well in this environment of a low Canadian dollar and strong U.S. demand."
Moffatt says we can be confident those conditions should persist for at least the near future, given that the price of oil is expected to stay low because OPEC nations are expected to maintain their current output.
He adds things are likely to slow down south of the border either.
"The U.S. economy is doing quite well. They added over 200,000 jobs this month which is higher than average," says Moffatt. "The Federal Reserve is talking about the need to increase interest rates in the United States because, in fact, the U.S. economy looks like it might be overheating."
Moffatt says the financial and insurance sectors are also performing well, which benefits the London area.
Nationally, the economy shed 35,700 jobs in November which led to a rise in the unemployment rate to 7.1% from October’s 7%.
