Photo: Fungus Guy · CC BY-SA 3.0Laird has 0.3 jobs for every resident in work, so most commute out
Jobs were held by 72% of people aged 15 to 64 in Laird in 2021, against 73% in the middle of Canadian towns. Before tax, the typical household in Laird brought in $99,400 in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900. Census day 2021 found 9.8% of Laird’s labour force without a job, next to 9.9% for the middle of Canadian towns.
What stands out about work in Laird
Higher incomes than most towns
Household income at the median was $99,400 in 2020, before tax; Canadian towns have $85,900 at the middle. Household income ↓
Longer trips than most towns
Commutes take 32.4 minutes on average, against 26 in the middle of Canadian towns; 0% take an hour or more. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Laird earns C for jobs and income
Better than 34% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is household income; its weakest, trip times.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
How Laird’s household incomes compare
Before tax, 2020: higher than in 85% of Canadian towns.
Laird’s median is 9% above the middle of Ontario’s towns ($91,600). No other place of 2,500 or more in the Algoma census division has a higher median. Read the incomes as 2020’s, before tax: pandemic benefits such as CERB are in them, and they raised many low incomes for that year.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Longer than the middle of Canadian towns: commutes from Laird average 32.4 minutes
The middle of Ontario’s towns averages 28.6 minutes. Only 14% get to work within a quarter-hour, against 31% in the middle of Ontario’s towns. Long trips are rarer than in the middle of Ontario’s towns: 0% take an hour or more, against 7.9%. Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 29.9 minutes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
Commuting time at the 2021 Census, to work only, for people who travel to a usual workplace or have none fixed.
Laird is quieter on a working day than at night
325 residents of Laird had a usual place of work at the 2021 census, and 80 people had theirs in Laird, wherever they lived.
Outbound commuters outnumber inbound ones about 5 to 1. The job is inside the municipality for 4.6% of its commuters (70% in the middle of Canadian towns).
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
95% of Laird’s residents in work leave it to work; Sault Ste. Marie takes the most
- Sault Ste. Marie30
- Timmins15
- Greater Sudbury / Grand Sudbury10
- Johnson10
Inbound, the leader is Sault Ste. Marie (30).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
2021 Census, people with a usual place of work: where residents of Laird work and where people who work there live, the ten largest each way.
Who in Laird has a job
Of the 5 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Algoma census division, 4 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Counting those looking for work too, 58% of people aged 15 and over were in the labour force. Across all ages 15 and over the share in work falls to 53%: many residents are past working age. The Labour Force Survey’s employment rate for the wider area was 56% in October 2026. May 2021, when the census was taken, was a pandemic spring; unemployment has come down since, as the Labour Force Survey records.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
Walk, cycle or ride transit: the choice of 0% of Laird’s commuters
Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. Nearly everyone drives: 99% of commuters go by car, truck or van. Fewer worked at home than in the middle of Canadian towns: 20% against 21%.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
How residents who commute got to work, 2021 Census; working at home is counted apart.
In the Algoma census division, 4% more people receive EI than in 2019
That is about 5 people on EI for every 100 aged 15 to 64 in the division. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 6%. The highest month was April 2021: 7,740 people, 2.4 times the 2019 level.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI beneficiaries published for the Algoma census division, not by town. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
Walking in Laird earns D−
Better than 2% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Jobs near Laird: the places around it
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laird | 72% | 9.8% | $99K | 32.4 min | C | D− |
| Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional 10.1 km | 73% | 8.7% | $96K | 33.8 min | C | D− |
| St. Joseph 13.8 km | 71% | 12% | $82K | 32.8 min | C− | C− |
| Garden River 14 17.8 km | 53% | 14% | $54K | 20.1 min | D | C+ |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and the average commute, with both grades once they come.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Laird, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- The Labour Force Survey. A monthly household survey by Statistics Canada, reported for metro areas and economic regions only. It supplies a recent rate next to the 2021 census figure.
- In work. Everyone with a job, whatever their age, divided by the residents aged 15 to 64 at the 2021 Census: below the municipality the census doesn’t split work by age, and this is the one rate every town and neighbourhood can be given.
- Unemployment. A census-day figure: people without a job who were looking, divided by all those working or looking, ages 15 and up.
- Household income. Before-tax total income of the middle household for 2020, from the census. Neighbourhood medians are worked out from bracket counts, since Statistics Canada publishes none of their own.
- Trip times. How long getting to work normally takes, averaged from the census’s time bands at their middles; expect it to read slightly high against the timed figure.
- Where people commute. Jobs count everyone whose usual workplace lies in the municipality, residents or commuters from elsewhere, from Statistics Canada’s home-by-workplace table.
- Employment Insurance. A monthly count of Employment Insurance beneficiaries for the whole census division. It tracks the local job market, but it is not an unemployment rate.
- Which towns we compare. Towns and city neighbourhoods of 2,500 people or more, never a whole city and never a First Nations reserve. Middles are medians.
Questions about work in Laird
What is the average household income in Laird?
The census puts Laird at $99,400 for 2020, before tax and at the median, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Laird get to work?
Driving takes 99% of commuters to work, and on census day 20% of those in work were at home.
How long is the commute from Laird?
About 32.4 minutes on average, with 14% under a quarter-hour and 0% at an hour or longer.
Where do people in Laird work?
Only 4.6% work in Laird itself; the rest go first to Sault Ste. Marie (250) and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional (30).
How many jobs are there in Laird?
In June 2026, 13 businesses with employees were on Statistics Canada’s count.
What is the unemployment rate in Laird?
The 2021 census found 9.8% unemployed, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns; the Labour Force Survey’s latest, for the Northeast economic region, is 6% (October 2026).
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (14-10-0459, 14-10-0462) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).