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City of Vaughan

Economic and Investment Update – September 2022

Key Highlights

  • The Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued to decline for a second month dropping to seven per cent in August, the decline was largely driven by lower gasoline prices
  • The national unemployment rate increased for the first time in seven months, rising to 5.4 per cent
  • Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased slightly in July, rising 0.1 per cent to 2.056 trillion
  • Small Business and Entrepreneurship sees demand for consultations driven by Professional, Scientific & Technical Services, Retail Trade, and Accommodation & Food Services in September
  • Vaughan-headquartered Fastfrate Group was selected as a 2022 Inbound Logistics Top 100 Trucking Company
  • Vaughan-based Teledyne Geospatial partners with Seabed 2030 to understand underwater impacts of volcanic eruption

SELECT Economic Indicators

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued to decline for a second month dropping to seven per cent in August, the decline was largely driven by lower gasoline prices

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped to seven per cent in August, a second consecutive slowdown from a peak of 8.1 per cent in June. Ontario’s CPI also decreased, to 6.9 per cent in August.

Transportation and shelter costs drove down consumer prices in August, which still saw increases of 10.3 per cent and 6.6 per cent.

Food prices for food purchased from stores rose in August to 10.8 per cent, the fastest pace since August 1981.

The national unemployment rate rose for the first time in seven months in August, up 0.5 percentage points

National unemployment increased in August for the first time in seven months, up 0.5 per cent from July where the rate was the lowest since data became available in 1976. In Ontario, unemployment increased slightly from 5.3 per cent to 5.7 per cent, while the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) – which includes Vaughan – rose slightly to 5.9 per cent in August.

Youth unemployment in Ontario (aged 15 to 24) increased slightly from 10.7 to 11.4 per cent, while unemployment increased by 0.2 per cent for adult women (25 years and over) in Ontario to 5.1 per cent and by 0.6 per cent to 4.5 per cent for adult men (25 years and over).

Employers will continue to face labour challenges as more workers approach retirement age. Occupations related to transportation and manufacturing had some of the oldest age profiles in August. Specifically, workers in transport and heavy equipment operation, assemblers in manufacturing and processing and manufacturing machine operators had some of the lowest ratios of younger workers to older workers. In Vaughan, transportation accounted for $1.16 billion in economic output and employed more than 15,500 workers in 2021, while manufacturing employed nearly 42,000 workers and accounted for $4.69 billion in economic output for the same time period.

Hourly wages for employees rose 5.4 per cent compared with the previous year in August, slightly above the rate of increase seen in July. Despite the increase, the rise in wages still falls behind the rate of inflation, decreasing purchasing power for Canadians.

In the August Labour Force Survey, the number of Canadians considering a job change in the next 12 months is on the rise. Compared to when this question was asked in January 2022, this number has doubled to 11.9 per cent; when looking only at the bottom 20 per cent of earners, that number jumped to nearly one in five.

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased in May

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced in the economy, increased by 0.1 per cent in July.

Manufacturing contracted in 0.5 per cent in July, the third decline in this industry in four months, led by a decrease in durable goods manufacturing. Non-durable goods manufacturing saw its first increase since March of this year, rising 0.7 per cent, although food manufacturing saw a 1.8 per cent decrease.

Wholesale trade and retail trade both contracted in July. Wholesale trade was down for the fifth time within a six-month period, decreasing by 0.7 per cent in July. This was due to a decrease in personal in household goods wholesaling in large part from reduced textile, clothing and footwear wholesaling, as well as a significant decline in building materials and supplies wholesaling. Retail trade dropped by 1.9 per cent in July, the lowest level since December 2021, as gas and food and beverage store purchases decreased.

Wholesale trade accounted for $2.87 billion in economic output and employed 14,500 workers, while retail trade account for $1.7 billion in economic output and employed 35,900 workers in Vaughan in 2021.

LOCAL TRENDS, INVESTMENTS, AND SUCCESS STORIES

Small Business and Entrepreneurship sees demand for consultations driven by Professional, Scientific & Technical Services, Retail Trade, and Accommodation & Food Services in September

ED’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship top five industries seeking consultations in September were:

  1. Professional, Scientific & Technical Services (29%)
  2. Retail Trade (27%)
  3. Professional, Scientific & Technical Services (23%)
  4. Other (11%)
  5. Other Services (Except Public Administration) (6%)
Vaughan-headquartered Fastfrate Group selected as a 2022 Inbound Logistics Top 100 Trucker

Vaughan-headquartered Fastfrate Group, a Canadian leader in providing transportation and logistics services, was selected as one of the 2022 Top 100 Truckers by Inbound Logistics.

Fastfrate Group is comprised of seven companies and 40 locations operating across Canada and the United States which provide end-to-end supply chain solutions.

Vaughan is home to a thriving transportation and warehousing sector, which accounted for $1.16 billion in economic output and employed more than 15,500 workers in 2021.

Vaughan-based Teledyne Geospatial partners with Seabed 2030 to understand underwater impacts of volcanic eruption

Vaughan-based Teledyne Geospatial, a leading developer of hydrographic and marine GIS software, partnered with Seabed 2030 to discover the undersea impacts of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HT–HH) volcanic eruption, which produced the biggest atmospheric explosion recorded on Earth in over a century.

Vaughan is at the heart of York Region’s innovation economy, linking Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital (Canada’s first smart hospital) and the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) to Toronto’s renowned research hospitals and some of Canada’s top universities. Vaughan’s technology sector is home to other leading companies such as Mircom, Soroc Technology, SCIEX, Digital Realty, Wirecomm Systems and others.