By Jeff Bolichowski, The Standard

Welland – ST. CATHARINES

For the first time since 2007, Niagara is below average – the national unemployment average, namely.

Unemployment across the St. Catharines-Niagara census metropolitan area dropped to 7.4% in December, according to Statistics Canada. That’s down from 7.6% in November, and it puts the region’s jobless numbers below the provincial average rate of 7.7% and the national rate of 7.5%.

That hasn’t happened since May 2007, Statistics Canada senior analyst Jason Gilmore confirmed. Then, St. Catharines-Niagara had an unemployment rate of 5.9%, below the 6% national average.

That had Stan Drobnich, executive director of the Employment Help Centre in west Niagara, pleased and hoping for more good news.

“All I can say is I hope this trend continues,” he said. “This is a good sign. It gives you reason to be optimistic, though with a little bit of caution.”

Drobnich said the centre, which has offices in Beamsville, Grimsby and West Lincoln, has seen the job market starting to loosen up. He said manufacturing work is starting to come around again, and companies are beginning to rehire clerical staff they let go during the peak of the recession.

Older workers are having more success now in finding jobs, he said.

“I just find trends are changing a little bit now.”

But he said despite more young people finding work now, many still have to leave Niagara to do it.

The St. Catharines-Niagara census area doesn’t count West Lincoln and Grimsby, but Drobnich said economic signs have been positive in both Niagara and Hamilton.

Gilmore said the change here came as the workforce hemorrhaged 1,000 jobs, but 600 people also dropped off the unemployment rolls. But he said the area had 3,600 more jobs this December than it did last year.

He said employment declined in the construction and manufacturing sectors, but service-providing jobs like health care, social assistance, public administration and finance increased.

Deanna Villella, manager of the Job Gym, said Niagara creeping back below the national average can be both good and bad. She said a lot of the new jobs out there are part-time and entry-level positions.

“We’re typically seeing more of the service, the admin type of jobs,” she said. They may not pay a lot, but she said many job seekers use them as jumping-off points into something better.

She said the ranks of the unemployed are likely shrinking as many job seekers step off the market and head back to school. The Job Gym, she said, has seen many clients seek to upgrade their skills.

Better unemployment numbers or not, it takes longer to get a job these days, Villella said.

“People can get easily discouraged,” she said. “Obviously, they want the process to move a little bit faster for them because they have bills to pay and they’d rather be working.”

Nationally, the economy added 18,000 jobs after two months of declines. Part-time employment jumped by 43,000, but full-time jobs took a 26,000-job skid.

In Ontario, we gained 16,000 jobs, bringing the province to 91,000 new jobs – a growth of 1.4% – since December 2010.