“Ontarians cannot wait until the end of this government’s term to get some focus on the real priorities. Something has to change. If it can’t be the premier, it must be the public attitude toward him.”
A News Commentary from Data Shows, a professional, non-partisan data gathering venue based in Ontario, Canada
Posted September 26th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
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Doug Ford’s big announcement this past September 25th was on flashing radar speed signs.
Ford has been on an angry rant about speed radar machines lately, a problem he created. His regulations allowed the machines, his regulations set the fines. It’s the gong show.
What should have been flashing for the premier was today’s data showing in July Ontario lost 91,000 employment positions and employers were looking to fill 19,000 fewer job openings.
The premier has told jobless workers to “get off your A-S-S [ https://substack.com/redirect/59a87df9-8fcf-4061-a30b-27a89edf44b6?j=eyJ1IjoiM3g4b3BsIn0.gTyF7RtVaWrg4_JLvD63hvYzJPuyQCsAk-UibLfp0Ec ]” and “look harder” for jobs. Doug Ford doesn’t think it’s his problem, and he has no plan to fix it.
Job openings tumble 60%
The cost to Ontarians isn’t just in dollars. It’s also in wasted opportunity, especially for young workers trying to break into the job market
The number of job openings has tanked, and it’s not just since Trump.
StatsCan’s July Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours (SEPH), released this September 25th, found 19,000 fewer job openings in July than June.
Bur job opportunities have now fallen by over 60 per cent since April 2022. That’s Doug, not Donald.
StatsCan’s most recent Ontario Labour Force Survey shows 807,000 unemployed workers chasing 161,500 open jobs. That’s more than five job-seekers for every job opening.
91,000 fewer Ontarians receiving a paycheque in July
A very high price is being paid by a rising number of Ontarians without a paycheque.
The SEPH report shows in July there were 91,000 fewer employees than June and fewer employees than back in June of 2023.
And every consumer-oriented business will also pay the price of 91,000 fewer paycheques in the provincial economy.
So will the provincial treasury, which is filled by the income tax contributions of employed workers and the sales tax remittances of the businesses they shop at.
The jobs cost comes at a very delicate time as tariffs hit Ontario’s steel, auto and forestry industries.
Steel mills in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie face steep challenges finding new markets. Currently, two of Southern Ontario’s eight auto assembly plants are not rolling any product off the line. Northern Ontario logging and saw mills, which supply homebuilding, are paying the price for both Trump’s tariffs and Ford’s housing collapse.
Lower hours cuts paycheques in several industries
- Top-line data shows a reduction in jobs. But for several sectors, it also shows a cut in paid weekly hours for those still employed:
- auto industry workers were paid for an average of 41.0 hours weekly in July, down from 43.5 hours in September 2024
- forestry workers’ average weekly hours have been reduced to 37.6 in July from 46.2 in March 2023
- metals manufacturing workers, like steel mill workers, have had weekly hours cut from 42.3 in September 2024 to 37.8 in July
- motion picture and recording industry employees saw their average hours cut to just 26.2 last month, well down from over 40 hours throughout 2021
- bar and restaurants employees have seen their shifts chopped to 21.7 hours from 23.2 in July 2023
Ontario’s problems are deepening and its premier is focused on small ball problems that he created. He has no sector plans or strategies to enhance innovation and productivity. No jobs plan at all.
Ontarians cannot wait until the end of this government’s term to get some focus on the real priorities. Something has to change. If it can’t be the premier, it must be the public attitude toward him.
About Data Shows – Some things actually matter. And when they do, effective people use data to guide their actions and evaluate their results. Ineffective people hide the data.
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Data Shows’ Tom Parkin
Data Shows’ editor is Tom Parkin. Contact me with interesting data, data chart or a guest piece you’d like to submit to Data Shows: tparkin@impact-strategies.ca .
Tom Parkin@tparkin Canadian columnist and commentator with a bluntly social democratic perspective. I write a lot about data that matters to our everyday lives. But sometimes it’s just plain opinion.
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