2025 Data Walk – Exploring the Stories Behind the Numbers

The Durham Workforce Authority (DWA) hosted its 2025 Data Walk to bring local labour market information to life. The event showcased key data and trends shaping Durham Region’s economy through six themed research stations, each focused on a different aspect of our workforce.

Traditional reports can make labour market information feel abstract or hard to connect to everyday realities. The Data Walk format changes that; it invites people to move, read, and discuss, offering an interactive platform for community members, employers, educators, and policymakers to explore the data that informs decision-making in Durham Region. Participants “walk through” poster displays and speaker sessions, learning how the latest research connects to real-world issues such as skills shortages, youth unemployment, and emerging industries.  Each station combined visuals, data charts, and speaker insights to make the findings meaningful. By linking statistics to local experience, participants could see how the numbers reflect the challenges and opportunities in Durham’s workforce today.

Six Stations, One Local Story

The 2025 Data Walk featured six research stations, each focusing on an essential part of Durham’s labour market. Together, they told a story of resilience, transition, and opportunity.

  1. Skilled Trades – Highlighted the growing demand for apprenticeships and certifications in Durham, including trends in diversity and age among skilled trades workers.

  2. Future Energy – Showed how Durham’s energy sector is transforming with new technologies, clean energy projects, and the skills needed to support them.

  3. Unemployment – Explored youth unemployment and visible minority unemployment rates, uncovering barriers and potential solutions to workforce participation.

  4. Job Vacancies and Business Obstacles – Examined the challenges employers face recruiting and retaining skilled employees, and where labour shortages are most pressing.

  5. Workforce Survey – Shared insights from DWA’s 2024 Workforce Survey, which collected data directly from Durham residents about employment, education, and local services.

  6. Jobs First Durham Tools – Demonstrated the value of DWA’s online tools, which connect job seekers and employers while providing real-time data on job postings, wages, and skills.

Connecting Data to Action

The Data Walk isn’t just about sharing research, it’s about sparking dialogue. Participants discussed how these findings can inform workforce planning, education, and community development across Durham Region.

The event highlighted the DWA’s ongoing commitment to making local labour market information accessible and actionable. Whether it’s tracking job postings through Jobs First Durham, exploring emerging sectors like Future Energy, or addressing barriers to employment, the DWA’s research is designed to help community partners respond effectively to Durham’s evolving economy.

About the DWA:

The DWA creates an annual plan supplying helpful information for community planning. Next month, the DWA will release its annual Labour Market Plan (LMP).

The plan focuses on the following:

  • Durham Region demographics change, migration trends in and out, educational attainment of residents, and changes in employers in the local area by employee size and 3-digit NAICs.
  • Enhanced Jobs First Durham (JFD) data extracted from the DWA’s boutique job board with hyper-local information.
  • An update on Employment Ontario data.

The DWA provides just-in-time custom labour market information and often conducts custom fee-for-service research. If you are interested in local data, please don’t hesitate to contact the DWA.

The Province of Ontario partially funds the DWA to supply Labour Market Information (LMI) to the Region of Durham.