Toronto Region Labour Market Monitor: Service Canada, January 2010

The Labour Market Monitor is an overview of the Toronto Economic Region including the City of Toronto, and the regional municipalities of Durham, York, Peel and Halton. This monthly report is produced by the local area Labour Market Information Analyst. For further information, contact: Catherine M. Walsh.

Labour Force Trends/Survey

From January 2009 to January 2010, the labour force in the economic region of Toronto increased by 50,100 due to growth in the working-age population. However, growth was moderated due to a slight drop in the rate of labour force participation. Net employment remained relatively unchanged as gains in full time employment were fully offset by losses in part time jobs. The employment rate in the region fell to 61.5%, 1.4 percentage points lower than the same month last year. Unemployment increased by 50,900, leading to a rise in the unemployment rate from 7.5% in January 2009 to 8.9% in January 2010. Over this same period, the provincial unemployment rate rose from 7.2% to 8.7%.

For more information, please visit the Statistics Canada website.

Labour Market News by Industry

Accommodation and Food Services

A&W Restaurants will be opening a new location in Whitchurch-Stouffville on Hoover Park Drive.

The Silver Spoon on Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto closed after 10 years of service. Continuing roadwork was noted as one of the reasons for the closure. Chef/owner Rocco Agostino's new restaurant, Enoteco Sociale, is scheduled to open on Dundas Street West in April 2010.

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

A 24-hour gym will be opening in Whitchuch-Stouffville. The gym will be located in the plaza under construction at Tenth Line and Main Street. Shoppers Drug Mart will open a location in the same plaza within the next few months.

Construction

Building Permits

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced 1,719 housing starts in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) during the month of December, down 33% from December 2008. Overall, housing starts in the Toronto CMA in 2009 were down 38.5% compared to 2008. There were 144 housing starts in the Oshawa CMA during December, up 92% from December 2008. Housing starts in the Oshawa CMA for 2009 were down  50.7% from 2008. www.cmhc.ca 

According to Statistics Canada, investment in non-residential construction in Ontario decreased by 3.8% to $2.1 billion from the third to fourth quarter of 2009. The decrease was due mainly to decreases in spending on commercial construction projects. Investment in the Toronto CMA was down by 4.3% from the third to fourth quarter of 2009, and down by 12.9% year over year. Investment in the Oshawa CMA was down by 2.2% from the third to fourth quarter and by 9.8% from 2008 to 2009.

The Royal Ontario Museum will build two new galleries and renovate the Bat Cave exhibit by 2011. The new galleries will house close to two thousand Roman and Byzantine artefacts currently in storage. The new galleries and renovations are funded by the federal government and private donations.

The Government of Ontario will be undertaking a “green” retrofit of 222 Jarvis Street in Toronto. The $100-million project is the first project under the province's Toronto Accommodation Plan, a 10-year initiative to improve the efficiency of provincial government buildings. Changes to the building include a new roof with reflective roofing materials, rainwater harvesting, and a new heating and cooling system. The retrofit is one of the largest projects of its type in North America.

SunOpta BioProcess Incorporated of Brampton will receive $5.5 million in federal funding for the construction of a demonstration plant. SunOpta produces bio-fuel products and will use the plant to turn wood chips into fuel-grade ethanol and xylitol, a sugar substitute.

Education Services

Kumon Learning Centre opened a new location at Rockwood Mall in Mississauga. Kumon offers after-school learning programs in math and reading.

Finance, Insurance and Real Estate and Leasing

Mutual Funds

Canadian mutual fund assets under management increased 1.4% from $586.8 billion in November to $595.2 billion at the end of 2009. Assets under management were up 17.4% from January 2009. www.ific.ca 

Real Estate

According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, existing home sales almost doubled during the first two weeks of January compared to the same time period in 2009. Greater Toronto Realtors reported 1,749 sales in the first half of the month compared to 888 a year ago. Overall sales for 2009 increased 17% over 2008, including 5,541 sales in December. Total sales in December 2009 were more than double the sales total of the same period in 2008. www.torontorealestate.com 

According to a report by Colliers International, office vacancies in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) reached 6.1% at the end of 2009. Year over year, average asking rents fell from $17.83 to $16.20 per square foot. Less demand for office space and new construction contributed to the decrease.

Information and Culture

CityTV in Toronto laid off 36 full-time and 7 part-time employees, including on-air personalities. The layoffs were due to the recession and changes to local programming requirements in Rogers Television's Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) licence.

The Toronto Star reached a deal with its union to save 35 of the 78 jobs slated for layoffs in November 2009. Editing jobs will be retained while the design and layout of the paper's advertisements and other work will be contracted out to third parties.

Manufacturing

MDS Incorporated, a nuclear medicine company, will be moving its corporate headquarters from Toronto to Ottawa. Approximately 150 jobs will be lost in Toronto as a result of the move. The move is part of a corporate restructuring involving the sale of company assets including their lab division. MDS plans to retain MDS Nordion, their medical isotope supply division. MDS is expected to hire 50 employees for the Ottawa office.

Worldcolor Press Incorporated will consolidate its Toronto area operations into their facility in Aurora. Operations at the Worldcolor facility in Richmond Hill will be transferred as a result of the consolidation, resulting in the loss of approximately 200 positions. Worldcolor expects to hire 50 new positions at the Aurora facility. The consolidation is scheduled for completion by March 2010. Worldcolor produces magazines, catalogues, retail inserts, and direct mail products for publishers and retailers in Canada.

Canada Bread Company Limited will be closing three bakeries in the Greater Toronto Area by 2013. The company will be investing approximately $100 million to construct a new 370,000-square-foot facility in southwestern Ontario. Approximately 300 employees at the existing locations will be given the opportunity to continue employment at the new location or elsewhere within the company's operations. The location of the new facility has not yet been decided.

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services

According to a survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, 37% of chief information officers (CIO) in information technology indicate that their IT departments are currently understaffed in relation to workloads. Close to half of CIOs in professional and business services reported understaffing. The results are based on telephone surveys with 270 CIOs from companies across Canada.

Public Administration

Ontario's DriveTest driver examination centres reopened after a four-month long strike. DriveTest expects to hire an additional 100 permanent employees to address the backlog of applications stemming from the strike.

Trade, Wholesale and Retail

According to Statistics Canada, wholesale sales in Ontario increased by 3.5% to $21.7 billion during November. The increase was due mainly to higher sales in the automotive sector. Sales were at their highest level since September 2008. Retail sales in Ontario dropped by 0.4% from October to November, but are up 1.3 % from November 2008.

Transportation and Warehousing

Garda Security Group will be hiring 400 airport pre-screening officers for airports in six Canadian cities including Toronto. The hiring is part of a recruitment effort undertaken by the Canadian Air Transport Service Authority [CATSA] in response to enhanced security requirements. Garda Security Group is a subsidiary of Garda World Security Corporation, a cash logistics, physical security, and global risk consulting firm.

Sentinel Self-Storage will be opening a new location in Whitchurch-Stouffville at Kennedy and Stouffville roads.

Note: In preparing this bulletin, Service Canada has taken care to provide clients with labour market information from reliable sources that is timely and accurate at the time of publication. Since labour market conditions are dynamic, some of the information presented here may have changed since the bulletin was published. Readers are encouraged to also refer to other sources for additional information on the local economy and labour market. Information contained in this bulletin does not necessarily reflect official policies of Service Canada.