Looking at London's unemployment

London's unemployment rate for October shifted upwards .2 per cent from September's 8.5 per cent.

As we head into the colder months, landscaping companies are wrapping up for winter, but there is not much snow yet. Once we see Old Man Winter hit London, that's going to create some work for plow operators.

Is London's 8.7 per cent unemployment rate a concern?

Fanshawe College professor Darren Chapman said, "What's key when you look at it, what's the rate from year to year to year? If it looks like it's creeping up at the same time, it's not a problem or a trend."

According to Statistics Canada, London's unemployment in October 2011 was 8.7 per cent, October 2010 it was 8.6 per cent and October 2009 it was 10 per cent.

Perhaps this is a sign of optimism for those in the labour force. Robert Collins, the director of workforce development at the London Economic Develop Corporation (LEDC), said he feels it is. "Everyone is predicting that there will be a 2 per cent gain to the Canadian economy."

Well, how did we get here?

London is located in Southwestern Ontario's manufacturing corridor. We have had some layoffs in the manufacturing sector and it takes a while for those people who are laid off to find work again. After being laid off, people can collect Employment Insurance for up to one year, which may result in some people putting off their serious job search.

Professor Chapman said that people who are laid off see the economy pick up and then they begin to look for work, which results in the unemployment rate going up. "They gave up looking for jobs before so we didn't see them, now they're looking and now we see them."

Chapman said that kind of unemployment rate increased, but it's actually a good rate increase because now people have enough hope that they can find jobs.

Although Chapman said he feels it's only optimistic in the sense that London has bottomed out, "I don't think it's optimistic to say all of a sudden we're going to go as things were before, I don't think London's going to find that. We lost a mess load of manufacturing." He added that you need to look at the service companies who service the manufacturing plants, "those people are out of work, those folks are probably still out of work — we're not seeing a whole lot of plants open in London."

Collins and the LEDC recently launched their Hire One program, a campaign to promote and celebrate local job growth. Along with the LEDC, the City of London, the Employment Sector Council of London Middlesex, the Human Resource Professional London and District, Links 2 Work and the London Public Library are also involved in the launch. The website offers local resources for job seekers and employers looking to hire. When you log on hireonelondon.ca, the first thing you see is a 'job odometer'; between the launch on September 15 and November 21, the odometer has recorded 1,129 people who have found a job and marked it down on the site.