Windsor's mayor is not too worried about the area's unemployment rate being the highest in Canada.
Dilkens says he's not too fussed about it.
"Look at nationally; we're at a six-year high nationally. I look at our local numbers; clearly, I want it to be lower than it is today. But I look at what we have in the pipeline with NextStar; I look at lots of construction jobs coming with the hospital once the bridge is done and the opportunities we're working on with the province and others," he says.
According to Statistics Canada, the jobless rate in the Windsor area rose to 9.2 percent in August, the highest in Canada.
The figure is up slightly from the 9.1 percent recorded in June and July.
Dilkens says he thinks the future is bright.
"You've heard me say many times that I've never been more optimistic about the future of our community than I am today. I stand by that. This is a blip in time that I think will change relatively soon," he says.
Dilkens says everywhere he goes, people are looking for workers who want to work.
"So it's a matter of finding those people and matching those folks up. Everywhere I go from a restaurant server, if I'm in a restaurant trying to find servers, they can't, and everywhere along the pipeline, trying to find talent is extremely difficult," he says. "If you have skills and actually want to work, we have a full team of people who are looking to match employers with people who want to work. We can find you a job pretty darn quick."
Edmonton has the second-highest at 8.6 percent, followed by Toronto at 8 percent. The lowest unemployment rate in the country is 3.3 percent in Victoria, B.C.
Statistics Canada says the national unemployment rate increased to 6.6 percent in August—up from 6.4 percent in July—as students continued to face a difficult summer hiring season.
The agency's labour force survey says the economy added a modest 22,000 jobs last month, lagging the pace of population growth.
Employment rose in educational services, health care and social assistance, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing.
Meanwhile, it fell in professional, scientific and technical services, as well as utilities and natural resources.
Students returning to school in the fall faced an average unemployment rate of 16.7 percent between May and August, the highest since summer 2012, excluding the pandemic summer of 2020.
Workers' wages continued to increase rapidly in August, with average hourly wages up five percent from a year ago, reaching $35.16.