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Manufacturing jobs on the decline |
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Jobs in the manufacturing sector are on the decline, hit hard by
Canada's rising dollar, according to a new analysis of the country’s
labour market.
Last year was the third consecutive year that Canada’s manufacturing sector has shed jobs.
However, job gains in two other key employment sectors – natural resources and construction – more than made up the losses in manufacturing during the past three years, the study says.
The study, published in the online version of Perspectives on labour and income, looks at the performance of these three important sectors between 2002 and 2005. It focused in particular on resource-rich western Canada and central Canada’s large manufacturing base.
During this three-year period, factory jobs in Canada fell by nearly 149,000, or 6.4%, to about 2.17 million. Two-thirds of the decline took place in 2005 alone.
The three-year decline in manufacturing jobs was the most significant in the industry since the recession of the early 1990s. However, the current weakness still pales in comparison to the earlier recession, when factory jobs were disappearing at twice the rate they are now.
But while the manufacturing sector is cutting jobs, the construction and natural gas sectors are booming.
Since the end of 2002, employment in natural resources has risen by just under 40,000 jobs, a gain of about 15%. Alberta’s oil and gas industry led the growth.
At the same time, construction jobs also rose by about 167,000 or 18.8%. Job gains in construction have been particularly strong in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, where investment in non-residential construction has soared.
Overall, at the end of 2005, manufacturing accounted for 14% of all employment in Canada and construction, 6%.
Natural resources represented only 2%. However, in Alberta, the 127,000 jobs in natural resources accounted for 7% of the province’s overall employment.
Fueled by skyrocketing crude oil prices in recent years, employment in Alberta’s oil patch jumped by about 30% since 2002.
By the end of 2005, the region of Athabasca, Grande Prairie and Peace River had the hottest labour market in the country, with only 2.2% unemployment.
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Newsfile 