Failure to fill open positions has put London in 'jobs crisis,' mayor's office says

A report released Wednesday from Mayor Ed Holder's office says London is suffering from a "jobs crisis" with the Forest City ranking the worst among 35 Canadian census metropolitan areas when it comes to connecting those looking for work with vacant jobs by local employers.

Among the report's findings:

• London has the lowest employment rate (the number of employed divided by the population) of the 35 census metropolitan areas measured by Statistics Canada.

• It's not a regional problem. London's employment rate has been on a downward trajectory for the past 14 years, according to the report. While other cities in the region — including Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and Windsor — haven't experienced the same steady downward trend.

• The problem isn't a lack of job openings, but a failure in filling them. Of London's 78,000 people without a job (between the ages of 25 to 64), 68,000 of aren't actively looking for one.

• It's not getting better. The report says over the past year, London's workforce has declined by 10,000 people while the city's population grew during that period by 8,000.

Other report highlights

• The mayor's office is looking to Windsor's recent success in tapping into this pocket of "hidden unemployed," people who are not actively looking for work. They found that Windsor added 13,000 new jobs over the last six months.

Suggested fixes

• In addition to creating a London version of the Windsor job search website, Holder is setting a target to create 13,000 jobs by the end of his term in the fall of 2022. Meeting that target, the report says, will bring London's employment rate for 25 to 64 year-olds in line with the average for Ontario census metropolitan areas (77 per cent versus 72 per cent for London in 2018).

• Improved transit. The report says the London Transit Commission service isn't doing enough to get workers closer to their employers, particularly in the industrial parks in the city's east end. The report says this problem has been studied enough, and now is the time to improve the service. "For London, bus service that gets workers to our plants on time is an essential requirement for filling jobs. As such, this must be an immediate priority for London Transit and London's city council," the report says.

Read the full report