Only 9% of Ontario’s job-creation happened outside GTA and Ottawa since 2008

TORONTO—Despite strong job-creation numbers in the Greater Toronto Area and to a lesser extent Ottawa, many cities and rural areas outside these two large regions have experienced little or no job growth over the past decade. So finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“The economic reality in Toronto and Ottawa is much different than in places such as London, Sudbury, Peterborough and Thunder Bay.”

“In terms of job-creation, Ontario’s post-recession recovery has been markedly uneven, with the largest urban centres regaining lost ground more quickly while much of the rest of the province continues to struggle,” said Ben Eisen, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Uneven Recovery: Job Creation in Ontario’s Urban Centres between 2008 and 2018. For example, from 2008-2018 (the latest year of comparable data), total employment growth was 17.3 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and 9.7 per cent in Ottawa—compared to 1.9 per cent in the rest of the province. Consequently, during the same time period, 90.8 per cent of all net job-creation in Ontario occurred in the GTA and Ottawa—compared to 9.2 per cent in the rest of the province. “Rural Ontario, and cities other than Toronto and Ottawa, comprise a large chunk of the province’s workforce, so poor employment growth in these areas is a serious problem for Ontario and indeed the country,” Eisen said. “The economic reality in Toronto and Ottawa is much different than in places such as London, Sudbury, Peterborough and Thunder Bay.” Media Contact: Ben Eisen, Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact: Mark Hasiuk, Fraser Institute mark.hasiuk@fraserinstitute.org