Waterloo Region is edging to the top of a podium it doesn’t want to be on.
The unemployment rate across Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo remained stagnant in March, but still sits at 8.6 per cent, according to the latest Labour Force Survey.
That places the Tri-Cities second amongst the 20 largest census metropolitan areas.
Waterloo Region sits only behind London, which has a jobless rate of 9.1 per cent.
The unemployment rate across the three cities is 0.6 per cent higher than it was in March 2025.
The unemployment rate for Ontario remained unchanged as well, sitting at 7.6 per cent. But the data shows that southern Ontario is particularly struggling.
“Regions of Southern Ontario continued to experience challenging labour market conditions and elevated unemployment rates, in a context that includes ongoing economic uncertainty related to tariffs on exports to the United States,” StatCan said. “Among Canada’s 20 largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs), the 5 highest unemployment rates in March were in London (9.1%), Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo (8.6%), Windsor (8.5%), Barrie (8.5%) and Toronto (8.1%).”
These southern Ontario cities are well above the national rate of 6.7 per cent.
According to the Region of Waterloo website, its key economic sectors include advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, food processing, and tech and digital media.
The automotive sector has been one of the hardest hit by U.S. tariffs as they continue to face steep duties over a year after President Donald Trump first launched the trade war.
According to the Labour Force Survey, manufacturing jobs were lost at a rate of 5.1 per cent between March 2025 and 2026 in Ontario.