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A new report from the Conference Board of Canada says Sudbury is looking at modest growth for the rest of 2018 and into 2019.
Things are looking up in the Nickel City, thanks in large part to our namesake mineral. The Conference Board of Canada released its Metropolitan Outlook Wednesday, detailing economic forecasts for 16 medium-sized cities.
Greater Sudbury will see modest growth throughout 2018-19. But with unemployment set to spike temporarily, it is not all good news.
“Greater Sudbury’s real GDP growth will hit 1.2 per cent in 2018 and a similar 1.1 per cent in 2019,” the report notes. “We expect Sudbury employment to drop 0.4 per cent in 2018 but rise 1.1 per cent in 2019. The unemployment rate will rise from 6.7 per cent last year to seven per cent this year, before falling to 6.6 per cent next year. Housing starts will fall to 165 units in 2018 but rebound to 280 units in 2019.”
Alan Arcand, the associate director of the Centre for Municipal Studies at the Conference Board of Canada, said Wednesday the Nickel City’s population will remain flat.
“The population in Greater Sudbury is about165,000 and we’re projecting it’ll stay the same throughout the forecast period,” he said. “The economy is going to grow, but not enough to generate enough jobs to get the population growing again.”
In fact, “employment is on track to fall for the fifth straight year in 2018,” the Conference Board said in their report.
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