Updated: Fri Dec. 05 2008 4:51:47 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

Ontario's crumbling manufacturing sector is a major reason why the 66,000 of the 71,000 jobs that disappeared in Canada in November did so in this province.

About two-thirds of the 66,000 jobs lost in Ontario were factory jobs -- 42,000.

Manufacturing now only accounts for 13.8 per cent of Ontario's jobs. In 2002, the sector represented 18.2 per cent of employment here. Nationally, 388,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in that six-year period.

The losses push the provincial unemployment rate 0.6 percentage points to 7.1 per cent, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.

Ontario has traditionally had a lower unemployment rate than Quebec, However, that may be changing.

"With the jump in unemployment in Ontario in November and no change in Quebec, the two rates are now the same for the first time in over 30 years," the agency said.

"However, the share of the population who was employed in November remained lower in Quebec (60.9 per cent) than in Ontario (63.1 per cent)."

Here are the three-month moving averages of unemployment rates for some southern Ontario cities. StatsCan warns the sample sizes are small, so the figures can fluctuate but not show a real trend:

• Toronto - 7.0 (6.8)
• Hamilton - 6.5 (5.7)
• Kitchener - 6.5 (5.3)
• London - 6.9 (6.8)
• Oshawa - 7.8 (7.2)
• St. Catharines-Niagara - 8.2 (7.7)
• Windsor - 10.1 (10.1)

The national rate increased to 6.3 per cent from 6.2 per cent, but StatsCan said 48,000 fewer Canadians had been looking for work last month. Otherwise, the rate would have been higher.

Most economists had been expecting national job losses of 20,000, with the worst-case scenarios predicting losses in the 40,000 to 50,000 range. The plunge is one of the worst job-loss performances since the nasty 1981-82 recession.

Since the first quarter of 2006, job growth in Canada has outpaced job growth in Ontario.

Derek Holt of Scotia Capital warned there could be more downside risk in Ontario as a result of the deepening slump in the United States -- the main market for Ontario's exported goods.

"In our opinion, this is the start of a volatile trend that will see U.S. supply chain hits trickling across the border more aggressively in the coming months. That will further hit jobs in manufacturing and related sectors, while construction jobs are poised for sharp downside risks as construction intentions have soured sharply of late," he said.

In Windsor on Friday, Premier Dalton McGuinty was asked if the economic situation had hit rock-bottom in the province.

"I don't know the answer to that question," McGuinty said in French. "But from my point of view, we'll always be there for those who've lost their jobs."

Finger-pointing

Opposition parties immediately lashed out at McGuinty's Liberal government.

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory accused the government of undermining consumer conference through inaction.

"They will get some hope in part from Mr. McGuinty and his government doing something about the economy, so the notion of him doing nothing, nothing -- no jobs plan, no restraint plan -- I think gives those people no hope," he said.

"It interferes with the very consumer confidence he's talking about trying to keep up, and I think it's an abdication of his responsibility."

The NDP targeted McGuinty's recent remarks that Ontarians should keep spending to prop up the economy.

These are real people with real families, real communities that are being devastated, and Mr. McGuinty's solution is to tell them to go and rack up credit-card debt and buy products built in China, Japan and the Philippines," said NDP critic Peter Kormos.

"That's absurd. It's silly, it's nonsensical and it's an insult."

With files from The Canadian Press