Vol. 4 Issue 2, April 9, 2020
Hamilton's Labour Market Connection
Your weekly news & updates from WPH!
In this week's edition: HOMETOWN HERO EDITION: WPH's dedication to positivity, community & getting through this together (with a side of labour market information)
Breaking (Labour Market) News

Statistics Canada just released March labour force statistics. There were 3,900 jobs lost in Hamilton in March. This made Hamilton’s unemployment rate spike by 0.8 percentage points from the previous month bringing it to 5.7%. The highest its been in three years.

Job losses were also seen across Ontario and Canada with unemployment rates increasing across the country. In Ontario there were 402,800 jobs lost moving the unemployment rate 6.1%.

A further look into these figures will follow as we dissect occupational and industry breakdowns and help the community better understand this information in the coming week's newsletters. Stay tuned.
HOMETOWN HERO NEWSLETTER: SUPPORT OUR CITY

With all the uncertainty and fear transgressing our community (and the world) we decided to reach out to our Hamilton community and seek the good news happening around town. The Hometown Hero newsletter will touch on stories from businesses who have been impacted by closures and their outlook on things. We are also sharing ways for people to continue to support their favourite Hamilton businesses and play a part in this community bouncing back!
60% of Hamilton businesses reported they were severely impacted by COVID-19.
With the increase in unemployment and the majority of businesses being impacted in a negative way we are hoping this newsletter can help you continue to support businesses and shed some light on great things happening in our city during times of despair.
Hometown Hub

Where local goes digital! Currently over 200 businesses on the Hub!

The Hometown Hub is an online one-stop shop and the mission is to deliver a simple, easy way to connect amazing small Hamilton businesses with the communities they help to enrich, bringing the care, quality and dedication of local business alive online. Hamilton businesses sign up to the website and their services/products are sold online.
Click on the highlighted words below to be taken directly to that section of the Hometown Hub.

Food: You can order from local restaurants that are doing curb side pick up or delivery.

Gift cards: People are able to purchase digital gift cards from local businesses. If you are a business and currently do not have digital gift cards - get in touch below with the Hometown Hub team and they can support you.

Online shop: Shop your favourite local boutiques and small businesses from the comfort of your home.

Streaming: Businesses all over the city are finding ways to stream classes, workshops and even some health-related support online.

Visit the website and explore for yourself the endless opportunities to continue to support local during the pandemic.

Attention Hamilton Business Owners: Hometown Hub is FREE to businesses. Click here to sign up for Hometown Hub or to get more information from the helpful team! Don't be shy, they are there to help. Even if you don't think your business in setup for this type of platform speak to the team, they have lots of great ideas.


Hamilton' Businesses Share Their Stories

We've been hearing directly from Hamilton-businesses from all sectors about their experiences during this pandemic. Below you will find stories from businesses and excerpts of their personal experiences, plans, and advice that may be useful for other businesses.
Thank you to these businesses for sharing their experiences and WPH hopes to hear from more business owners in the coming weeks.
Eccles Auto Service Inc
121 King Street W, Dundas - Open

Scott Eccles shared the changes adapted to their business as they are still servicing vehicles through the pandemic. The use and maintenance of cars is still needed for essential workers, grocery shopping, and supporting others during the pandemic. Changes to the business include:
  • drop box for keys when arriving to limit people from entering the shop
  • all cars are sanitized when they arrive, the work is done on them, and re-sanitized after before going back to their owners including the keys
  • payment is done through e-transfer or over the phone if possible
  • trying to avoid doing non-essential tasks on cars if possible

Scott Eccles assured WPH they will do what it takes to get through the pandemic but really emphasized the importance of the small local shops that are shut down or have limited services.To combat this, the team has purchased gift cards from local shops in their Dundas community and will be giving 5 away per day to customers! They encourage people to do the same to support businesses.
Vagabond Saints
3 Spring Street, Hamilton - Closed

Vagabond Saints prides themselves for their community involvement and shared ways for the community to continue to support local businesses.

It is simple: Engage with your favourite businesses on social media. Like their pages, comment on their posts; share their latest news, share pages with your network, repost your favourite content. Social media engagement is a FREE way for people to continue to support local without the financial commitment.

It is another way for businesses to know the community still supports them.

Search your social media for Vagabond Saints or click here to visit their website.

The team is currently working on some projects to get their online shop up and running; you can put a tattoo deposit down for a booking when the shop reopens, contact the team through social media.
Hamilton Rising

Hamilton Rising is the team behind Hometown Hub. They have been tirelessly working behind the scenes to get the Hometown Hub up and running and constantly expanding and making improvements to get businesses online in a one-stop shop.

Hamilton Rising has a great social media following with over 8,400 Instagram followers and are offering their Instagram platform for local businesses to participate in interviews in the Live story online and businesses can feature in their Bio for the day!

Looking to feature on their Live Story on Instagram? Click here for direct access to their Instagram.

On behalf of Hamilton and local businesses around town - THANK YOU HAMILTON RISING!
Hamilton Etiquette Coach on how to Approach Social Distancing in Public Places

We should all be practicing social distancing by staying at least 2-meters apart from people who you do not currently live with. This sometimes is difficult while out shopping for your essentials.

A local Etiquette coach, Lorna Somers, advises some ways to combat the awkwardness of asking others to move away. Humour and politeness are key factors to remember while we all try to navigate this current way of life. Try saying something like:



"I didn't realize I was so close to you, but I can't move any farther ahead. If you give us a little more space, we'll be in a lot better shape."

Hamilton Labour Force Information: March 2020
The pandemic is causing changes in our local labour market with regards to unemployment rate and across the province and country as a whole.
But what does this all mean?
Look out for next week's newsletter as we provide more details of what these number mean and how to understand them better and dive into more details about the impact on Hamilton .
Workforce Planning Hamilton | 905-521-5777| info@workforceplanninghamilton.ca | www.workforceplanninghamilton.ca