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Windsor’s unemployment dropped to 8.1 per cent for November, according to numbers released Friday by Statistics Canada.
The southwestern Ontario border city now has the country’s 10th highest jobless figure, after being at the top of the list earlier this year.
The unemployment rate in October had been 9.6 per cent, which was also a sharp decline.
November’s national rate was at 6.5 per cent.
According to Workforce WindsorEssex, that equates to about 5,500 people finding employment.
“This is actually our all-time high in terms of a number of people employed working in Windsor,-Essex, so…far back as statistics go for us,” said Justin Falconer, the CEO.
“We’ve been on this rollercoaster since February … at one point we had lost over 14,100 positions. And now we’ve climbed out of that hole and actually set a new all-time employment record for the area. So we have lots to be celebrating now.”
That record is 246,300 people in the region employed, the most since they started recording in January 2011.
The gains are across both public and private sectors, Falconer said, and health care and social assistance, educational services and manufacturing saw the largest gains.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens was unavailable for comment Friday.
Last month when contacted by CBC News about the jobless numbers declining in October he called it “good news, but not great news.”
“Let’s not get caught up in month-over-month,” he previously said. “Let’s play the long game and look at what we’re doing here, and the things we can control we’re actually doing really well.”
Locally, youth unemployment sits at 14 per cent, the lowest it’s been in nearly two years, Falconer added.
Heading into 2026, he’d like to see the region’s tech and construction sectors continue to grow.
“I know we’re 10th in the nation when it comes to unemployment right now. But in June and July, we were number one when it comes to unemployment in the country,” Falconer said.
“There has been a substantial drop in the number of people who are unemployed and looking for work. And I think that’s the right direction for us. “
Spikes in hospitality, retail sectors
Andrea Ducharme is the lead job developer at UHC-Hub of Opportunities.
She says the dip in unemployment is common around this time of year, when seasonal hiring is at its peak.
“What we see every year in at the end of October, beginning of November, we see an influx of jobs that are more at the entry level point because of the holiday season,” she said.
“So you see a a hike in the retail sector, you see a hike in the hospitality industry and that could be definitely adding to the decline in the unemployment rate.”
From here, she said manufacturing will have a busy January, but retail and hospitality will decline again until the spring and summer seasons.
But competition for these entry-level and seasonal jobs is high, she says: No longer is it just students looking for that kind of work.
“You have the people that have been displaced now competing for these entry level jobs now … or you have the retiree who needs to continue working,” she said.
For anyone struggling to find work, Ducharme offers some advice: upgrade where you can, get any certificates that are relevant to your line of work, have an up-to-date and easily readable resume — and one more thing.
“Talk to UHC and get assistance,” she said.