The unemployment rate fell to 10.9 per cent in July as the economy gained 419,000 jobs.
That's down from the 12.3 per cent recorded in June — slightly better than expected — and put the country within 1.3-million jobs of the pre-pandemic level.
Most employment gains in July were in part-time work, continuing a trend over the past three months.
Vic Fedeli is the Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. He tells The Afternoon News the province is heading in the right direction.
"We had 151,000 new jobs on top of the 378,000 jobs the previous month, so we're really seeing stabilization," he says.
Fedeli says the stats were compiled before the Greater Toronto Area entered Stage Three and that's a good sign heading into August.
"Certainly trust and hope that Windsor-Essex will be out of Stage Two and into Stage Three as well. We know that should be continued upward momentum from the fact that we've got everybody reopened to whatever level of reopening there is," added Fedeli.
He says rebounding numbers are a great sign, but there's more work to be done.
"This is more than just numbers and statistics, these are real people, families, businesses owners and workers," he says. "Many are back to work but we still have a long way to go."
The unemployment rate in the Windsor-Essex moved to 12.5 per cent in July after sitting at 15.2 per cent in June.
Essex County remains in Stage Two of the COVID-19 reopening plan.