Mon 10 Mar 2008
What job delivered the biggest opportunity growth in the years 2001-06? If you answered “retail sales clerk” you would have been right. For both men and women, retail sales had by far the strongest growth in jobs over that period.
While this reflects strong consumer spending in Canada, it also raises a more worrisome question on whether we are employing more and more people to sell products and services made elsewhere.
It used to be that there were far more Canadians employed in manufacturing than in retail sales. In 2001, there were 379,000 more people employed in manufacturing than in retail sales. But by 2006 the gap had narrowed to just 81,400, according to 2006 census data from Statistics Canada.
The Harper government says we needn’t worry because we are shifting away from manufacturing to resource industries, notably development of the Alberta oil sands. But despite the fast growth in oil and gas industry jobs, the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for just 1.4 per cent of all Canadian jobs in 2006, with manufacturing accounting for 11.8 per cent.
The paradox is that despite falling employment, manufacturing faces a skilled labour shortage. And this could damage the future of manufacturing in Canada because the world is in a global skills race and investment will go to where the skilled workers can be found. Moreover, Canada’s manufacturing future depends on a high-skill workforce because, to survive and grow, Canadian companies have to be high-value manufacturers.
There are several reasons for this shortage, as Andrew Sharpe, who heads the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, explained in a recent report, “Apprenticeship Issues and Challenges Facing Canadian Manufacturing Industries.”
One problem, Sharpe said, is that the manufacturing companies have to compete with the resource and construction industries for many skilled trades. While the resource and construction industries have been enjoying robust and profitable growth, manufacturers have been squeezed by the high dollar and tougher market conditions.
This means manufacturers find it hard to compete for or retain skilled workers since they don’t have the same flexibility to pay workers more. “Reported skilled labour shortages in manufacturing are no mirage,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe argues that manufacturers, governments, unions and colleges have to become much more concerned with training. For example, apprenticeship programs, which matter for many skilled jobs in manufacturing, should include more time in college so that young Canadians get both a college diploma and trades certificate. More provinces could also follow Ontario’s Youth Apprenticeship Program, which allows high school students to start learning the basics of trades while still in high school.
In fact, the need for much greater attention to education and training cuts across many areas of our economy. Statistics Canada says we rely heavily on immigrants for skills.
In 2001-2006, some 51 per cent of immigrants aged 25 to 64 had a university degree, compared to 20 per cent of Canadians. Some 25 per cent of recent immigrants had a degree in engineering, compared to just 6 per cent of Canadian-born degree holders. And 6 per cent of recent immigrants had studied computer and information sciences, compared to 2 per cent of Canadian graduates.
If we are going to be more than a nation of shopkeepers, we had better pay much more attention to producing products and services we can sell to the rest of the world. The place to start is with ensuring our people have the highest quality education and skills found anywhere in the world.
Related Alberta Jobs:
- Alarm bells sound about aging workers
- Alberta Leads in Unemployment
- Alberta’s manufacturing sector stays upward course
- Shortage in qualified labour hits record high in 2007: CFIB
- Canada high-paying and high-quality full-time jobs
