Tri-Cities tied for worst employment rate across Ontario: StatCan

With Statistics Canada (StatCan) releasing its latest jobs numbers nationwide for the month of June, the region is getting a better look at how its employment conditions rank amongst the province and the country, but it’s not the picture that the Tri-Cities would like to see.

According to the figures, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo is tied for having the worst employment rate across Ontario at 8.5 per cent.

That number is compared with the other 16 largest cities and municipalities across the province, ranging from Ottawa and Hamilton to London, Guelph, Toronto, and more.

That figure continues to shine a negative light on a national scale as well, with the Tri-Cities tied for the second-worst employment rate across Canada with Oshawa, and just below Kelowna, B.C., which sits at 9.2 per cent.

That number is compared with the other 42 top cities and regions across Canada.

It comes as the provincial average sits at 7 per cent, while the national average sits at 6.5 per cent, which is two full percentage points lower than what’s seen in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo.

While the region sits in a poor position comparatively with the rest of Ontario and Canada, it did add and fill additional jobs compared to the month of May, when the unemployment rate sat at 8.7 per cent.

Overall, the country is said to have added around 18,000 new jobs to the workforce, with youth particularly seeing a boost heading into the summer months.

StatCan said that, compared with 2025, Canada gained 33,000 positions for workers aged 15 to 24, particularly in part-time and private sector positions.

Year-over-year, overall employment across the country was up by 99,000 positions.

The full list of employment rates across those 44 listed cities and municipalities can be found below: