A new report by the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) of Ontario suggests that Windsor-Essex suffered the most job losses province-wide, largely due to tariffs.
According to the report, released on Monday, the Windsor area suffered the highest employment decline among Ontario metropolitan areas during the second quarter of 2025, at 4.3 per cent.
Furthermore, the report demonstrated that Windsor-Essex was feeling the effects of U.S. tariffs on manufacturing. The Trump administration's tariffs on Canada took effect in early March.
Municipalities that depend on manufacturing appear to have been hit the hardest. The FAO said there was a net loss of 29,400 manufacturing jobs in the second quarter across Ontario, the highest loss since the so-called Great Recession of 2009, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Windsor's unemployment rate reached 11.2 per cent during the quarter, the highest among Ontario's metropolitan areas.
This line graph shows the change in unemployment in Canadian metropolitan areas during the second quarter of 2025. Source: Financial Accountability Office of Ontario.
"Following the implementation of US tariffs, the latest economic indicators suggest mostly negative results for Ontario’s economy in the second quarter of 2025, with losses in employment, manufacturing sales, wholesale and retail trade, and international exports," read a release from the FAO.
The effect was felt across Ontario, as employment dropped by half a percentage point in the first quarter, the first decline in almost three years.
The report, however, was not all negative.
"While Ontario’s economic indicators in 2025 Q2 were consistent with the FAO projection, real GDP growth in the first quarter was stronger than expected," read the release. "Taken together, these results pose modest upside risks to the FAO’s outlook, while subsequent tariff changes are expected to have both positive and negative impacts."
Although a housing pinch is still felt across the province, the FAO report showed that housing starts totalled 17,300 during the second quarter, a 37 per cent increase from the low of 12,500 starts in quarter one.
The FAO is a non-partisan agency that provides independent analysis on the state of Ontario's finances, trends in the provincial economy, and related matters important to the Ontario legislature.