Heather Wright/The Independent

Sarnia-Lambton’s unemployment rate inched up to eight per cent in June.

That from Statistics Canada’s region numbers reported by the Sarnia-Lambton Workplace Development Board. The unemployemnt rate is up from 7.7 per cent in May.

Mikelle Bryson-Campbell, executive director of Sarnia-Lambton Workforce Development, says Sarnia-Lambton’s unemployment rate is similar to Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent.

While Sarnia-Lambton’s unemployment rate is slightly higher than Chatham-Kent – at 7.9 per cent – and higher than the 7.2 per cent unemployment rate in Windsor-Essex, it is nearly a full per cent lower than it was in Lambton in June 2025.

Bryson-Campbell says concerns about trade with the US may be having an impact.

“Some employers have said to us, ‘we’re not going to expand right now. We are going to pause our plans for hiring for now to see how things go.”

There was also 2,800 fewer people in the workforce in June 2026 than the same time last year.

Bryson-Campbell says the drop could be due to an aging population, one parent leaving the workforce because of child care costs and International students leaving Lambton in the wake of changes to the student visa program in the country.