Windsor is stuck in a trend that no one would ever want to be in and that trend is the unemployment rate, which now sits at 14.4%. This once booming town now holds the distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in Canada. There were more than 25,000 local residents out of Work in the Windsor area at the beginning of the summer, however with the Chrysler Windsor Assembly Plant reopening at the end of June, 3500 workers are now back on the job and with news that the midnight shift will remain at least until next summer, it may mean that the local economy may now begin to recover. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Follow up:

Windsors jobless have now joined the 1.6 million other people in Canada as the national unemployment rate rose from 8.4% to 8.6%. In the last 3 months there were 13,000 jobs lost across Canada compared to 273,000 in the first 3 months of the year and the biggest declines continue to be in the manufacturing sector, which has hit Windsor like a tonne of bricks. Most new employment across Canada has been part-time low paying jobs, which is a another trend that will continue throughout this new economy. Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh, the Ontario Progressive Conservative economic development and trade critic said that

Replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs is unsustainable and worrisome.

and he is absolutely right. Interestingly, with all the strikes happening in Windsor, people still want to blame unions for the current problems, yet these same union people are expected to be a bright spot on an otherwise dull local economy?

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