Money world

The unemployment rate in the Greater Toronto Area hit the double-digits last month as a strong Canadian dollar and cool, wet weather took its toll on the tourism industry.

The city’s jobless rate reached 10 per cent last month - its highest level since November, 1994, according to the latest figures released by Statistics Canada today.

That’s up from 9.6 per cent for June.

"Toronto is important for the tourism sector, and tourism has been hammered by this downturn. We rely on visitors from abroad and the strong currency isn’t helping," said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

"The weakness in construction, too, has weighed very heavily on Toronto."

Toronto now has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the province — and the country — behind Windsor, London, and St. Catharines-Niagara, all communities that have been devastated by the recent turmoil in the automotive industry.

Nationally, Canada’s unemployment rate didn’t change last month. It held steady at 8.6 per cent as the economy shed 45,000 jobs in July.

Students were the hardest hit last month. The jobless rate for those trying to earn money during the summer break rose sharply to 20.9 per cent - that the highest level since StatsCan began keeping this data in 1977.

StatsCan defines students as those "who attended school full-time in March and who are planning to return to school in the fall free credit report and score."

For others ages 15 to 24, the unemployment rate is substantially lower — 13.4 per cent.

"It gives you a taste of just how awful the market was for summer students," Porter said.

Another sign the dismal state of the job market: the participation rate has declined to 67.2 per cent, down 0.3 per cent from June, and an indication that many job-seekers have simply thrown in the towel.

While most of July’s job losses were in Quebec, there were also losses in Saskatchewan, as well as Newfoundland and Labrador, Statistics Canada said.

Employment fell last month in accommodating and food services and construction while there were increases in retail and wholesale trade.

Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in the country - 15.2 per cent, followed by London at 10.9 per cent. Both communities depend on the vehicle and automotive parts manufacturing sectors, which have suffered from plant closures and heavy job losses.

The jobless rate in St. Catharines-Niagara was 10.5 per cent.

Statscan measures unemployment for what it calls the Toronto CMA, or census metropolitan area, which extends from Milton in the west to Ajax on the east side, and north to Georgina.

Ottawa has the unemployment in the province, 5.9 per cent, thanks to hiring by the federal government.

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