Today's job numbers hardly come as a shock given the current state of things.
The Niagara Workforce Planning Board's Adam Durrant says they also saw a drop in participation rates from 57.2 percent to 55.2 percent.
"Traditionally when people lose work, they go into the 'unemployment' category. They're still in the labour force, they are still looking for work. What's happening with COVID-19 is that it is pushing a larger percentage of people into the 'Not in the Labour Force' category. People are not working and they are not looking for work. Probably because their sector has been shut down."
He adds some employers are still looking to hire - namely in healthcare, retail/trade, and shipping and logistics.
"We're seeing job demand across the board for nurses, for registered nurses, for RPNs, for personal support workers. Those are positions that are challenging in the best of circumstances made even more challenging given a pandemic as well. So there is that demand there. We're seeing demand in retail/trade as well. We're seeing demand in shipping and logistics, people to drive transport trucks, people to move freight. It's all very sector specific."
Durrant once again points out every one of the stats in the coming months represent people. "For my part, I want to make sure we don't forget that."