What's Hot and What's Not: The Successes and the Struggles in the Current Canadian Job Market

For the current job-seeker, the slowly recovering economy can seem to be, at times, still pretty bleak. This is not the case for all areas of employment, however, as we have seen an increase in opportunities over the last year, but all in specific regions and industries.  

It’s no secret that Eastern Canada has been struggling with higher unemployment rates and the ability to create or retain jobs, and yet, just in April 2013, the Western provinces had more than 218,000 job postings, “representing more than 40% of all the job openings in the country” (Canadian Business). It would seem, then, that in order to secure employment and a decent living wage, one must venture West. The disparity between employment availability in each region is “large enough to make different parts of the country seem almost like different countries,” notes Daniel Tencer of the Huffington Post. Tencer further explains that among Canada’s smaller cities, “the unemployment rate in 2011 ranged from 4.6 per cent to 16.4 per cent,” whereas, around The Fort McMurray, Alberta, area – the centre of the oil sands – there was a significant increase in the number of jobs by “95 per cent,” and unemployment sits at “less than 5% in the province and below 4% the closer you get to the oil-rich areas near Fort McMurray” (Canadian Business). Conversely, regions such as “forestry-dependent Miramichi, New Brunswick,” ended up losing “66 per cent of its jobs” (Tencer), which not only points to regional disparities, but disparities between industries as well.

So perhaps not everyone has to move West to acquire a stable, well-paying job, but if you are going to find one in the more Eastern provinces, it will have to be in a few specific sectors. There are certain industries that are suffering still throughout all of Canada, and are expected to continue to suffer for the foreseeable future; these are accommodations and food services, public/business/finance administration, and manufacturing, to name a few. As Tencer points out, the manufacturing sector “eked out a small net job gain of 16,000 in 2011, but employment was still down by 532,000 from its peak in 2004.” To be fair though, manufacturing has been in a steady decline even before the recession, with manufacturing work being moved overseas or offshore to reduce production costs, as well as on-shore manufacturing work becoming more and more automated. This industry has seen over “8 years of decline,” and has only created “15,900 jobs” as of 2011 (Tencer), so it is not expected to see a revival any time soon.

According to Mark Brown of Canadian Business, it is ultimately those in skilled trades and hospitality that are best equipped to compete in the current job market, as “skilled trade postings were up 40%” while the “hospitality sector increased the number of help-wanted adds by 46%” as of 2011. In fact, as Brown points out, “[o]ne out of every five job postings in Canada targets skilled trades.” For example, employment in mining, oil and gas has “soared 70 per cent between 2000 and 2011,” and the construction industry “saw jobs increase 56 per cent in the same period” (Tencer). There is a huge demand for oil & gas supervisors, petroleum engineers, and chemical engineers, and anything in the oil industry pays competitively, because there is a “gap between openings and eligible candidates” which serves to drive up salaries (Canadian Business). Within construction, too, workers have seen a wage increase by “6% over the past year, which is nearly double the national average pay increase” (Canadian Business). Canadian Business compiled a list of the best or top ranking jobs in Canada, and construction managers, pipefitters and electricians are some of the top jobs on that list that offer competitive salaries.

Canadian Business’s list of top jobs in Canada was based on employment growth between 2000 and 2011. Consistent with the data they accumulated, the most rapidly expanding industries in Canada within that period were

mining and oil and gas extraction (+70.3%) and construction (+56.4%). Other leading growth industries (all service related) included professional, scientific, technical services (+39.9%), health care and social assistance (+37.9%) and real estate and leasing (+30.1%). (Tencer)

Another sector that has already seen growth and is obviously destined to see more, due to a large percent of the population that is aging (the baby boomers), is health care: “[b]y 2020, nearly 9,000 nurses with a median wage of $72,000 will be retiring annually, as the demands of an aging population become more acute” (Canadian Business). This will not only open up a significant amount of jobs in health care because of those leaving the field, but the healthcare and residential aid sectors will also see an increased need for employees to deal with the surplus of aging citizens that will need care. Healthcare, therefore, features prominently on Canadian Business’s list of top Canadian jobs.  

Canada's Best Jobs 2013 Ranking: Canadian Business 

Overall Rank	Job	Growth in # of employees (2006-2012	Change in salary (2006-2012)	Projected job openings for every person looking in 2020	Median annual salary (2012)
1	Oil & gas drilling supervisor	44%	39%	2.3	$74,880
2	Head nurse & heath-care manager	58%	24%	1.23	$74,880
3	Petroleum engineer	75%	17%	1.02	$93,517
4	Electrical & telecommunications contractor	87%	28%	1.09	$72,800
5	School principal & administrator	9%	25%	1.23	$90,002
6	Lawyer	33%	14%	1.19	$79,997
7	Real estate & financial manager	47%	15%	1.07	$79,872
8	Senior government manager	4%	23%	1.15	$95,992
9	Chemical engineer	46%	20%	0.82	$78,000
10	Aerospace engineer	49%	11%	1.02	$75,005
11	Audiologist & speech-language pathologist	29%	21%	0.93	$77,813
12	Natural & applied science researcher	73%	25%	0.8	$73,590
13	Construction manager	39%	21%	0.94	$72,800
14	Police officer	25%	21%	1.05	$72,800
15	Financial administrator	13%	22%	0.92	$79,997
16	Registered nurse	10%	24%	1.23	$72,072
17	Sales & marketing manager	–4%	20%	1.15	$75,005
18	Dental hygienist	30%	12%	1.2	$69,992
19	Civil engineer	38%	13%	0.82	$76,960
20	Industrial technician	13%	28%	1.02	$74,381
21	Metal-forming contractor & supervisor	41%	32%	1.09	$65,874
22	Transportation manager	31%	17%	0.94	$72,800
23	Pipefitting contractor & supervisor	46%	19%	1.09	$66,560
24	Utilities manager	3%	17%	0.91	########
25	Software engineer	34%	8%	0.77	$79,997
26	Occupational therapist	34%	21%	0.93	$72,738
27	Pharmacist	12%	21%	0.71	$95,680
28	Computer engineer	19%	14%	1.02	$75,005
29	Psychologist	–9%	25%	1.04	$77,709
30	School and guidance counsellor	29%	32%	1.04	$69,326
31	Electrician	100%	22%	0.91	$69,493
32	Economic analyst (government)	–15%	16%	0.96	########
33	Geologist, geochemist & geophysicist	9%	34%	0.7	$89,440
34	Petroleum, gas & chemical process operator	5%	28%	1.16	$69,992
35	Health & occupation inspector	37%	15%	1.09	$66,560
36	Human-resources manager	9%	14%	0.92	$79,997
37	Mechanical engineer	33%	17%	0.82	$72,800
38	University professor	22%	19%	0.54	$81,994
39	Pilot	0%	25%	1.56	$69,846
40	Engineering manager	–20%	9%	1.06	$87,131
41	Secondary school teacher	3%	24%	1.04	$74,152
42	Railway & transportation supervisor	34%	38%	1.32	$60,320
43	Mining supervisor	18%	23%	2.3	$64,480
44	College instructor	21%	12%	1.45	$66,560
45	Urban planner	26%	16%	0.91	$72,530
46	Banking & credit manager	10%	13%	1.07	$72,530
47	Health-policy researcher	124%	19%	0.8	$67,205
48	Construction inspector	42%	13%	0.91	$62,400
49	Power system operator	–6%	11%	0.78	$70,720
50	Probation & parole officer	11%	13%	0.96	$71,094

Methodology

We used Statistics Canada data on employment and wages, including jobs that had experienced employment growth between 2006 and 2012 and had a median salary of $60,000 or more and at least 5,000 employed individuals. Rankings are based on four criteria: job growth, median compensation (based on a 40-hour work week) in 2012, the change in median compensation from 2006 to 2012, and the projected demand for those jobs using data from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The final rank is based on a weighting of 25% to job growth, 25% to projected job demand, 40% to median wage and 10% to change in compensation. A few broad nonspecific categories were eliminated.

Sources:

“Canada’s Best Jobs 2013,” Canadian Business. CB Staff writers: Mark Brown, Sarah Marmak, Jeff Beer, Joe Castaldo, John Lorinc, Alexandra Posadzki, Tim Shufelt, and Richard Warnica, April 12^th 2013.

“Canada Job Market Exhibits Enormous Disparities, People Patterns Report Says,” Huffington Post Daniel Tencer, September 5^th 2012.

“Here’s Where Canada’s Biggest Job Growth Will Be in 2014,” Canadian Business, Mark Brown., December 6^th 2013. 

Amanda Labelle