While the unemployment rate across Canada broke new records last month, in Windsor, it remained at 8.3 per cent for the second month in a row.
About 4,000 people left the local labour force, as the city shed 3,800 jobs in March.
Windsor, once again, recorded the highest unemployment rate in Canada. Quebec City had the lowest at 2.7 per cent.
Statistics Canada conducted its Labour Force Survey between March 13 and March 19 as Ontario lifted more pandemic restrictions, including capacity limits at restaurants and bars, and did away with the vaccine passport program.
Across the country, employment levels broke new ground as the economy added 73,000 jobs, wages increased over March 2021, and fewer Canadians worked from home. The national unemployment rate fell another 0.2 percentage points from February to 5.3 per cent in March, surpassing the previous record low of 5.4 per cent set in May 2019. Last month's result was the lowest since Statistics Canada began using its current concepts in 1976.
Just one in five workers worked outside the office, hourly pay increased 3.4 per cent over March 2021, and the jobless rate for very recent immigrants fell to a historic low of 8.3 per cent.
Including those who wanted a job but didn't look for one last month, unemployment was 7.2 per cent, below pre-pandemic levels for the first time since April 2020.
Canadian gains mirror increases in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
Adjusted to American concepts, unemployment in Canada was 0.7 percentage points higher than in the U.S., 4.3 per cent compared to 3.6 per cent.
Most of those job gains across Canada were in Ontario and Quebec, as the goods-producing sector grew by 31,000 positions and services added 42,000.
In Ontario, there was a net of 35,000 jobs, pushing unemployment down to 5.3 per cent.
