Blue collar workers migrating to Alberta’s patch: Stats Can

OTTAWA — Freight carriers who assume that recent manufacturing plant closures in Canada may spark an exodus of potential truck drivers to their companies should get in line for skilled help.

A new Stats Canada study that examines labour market shifts, shows that while Canada’s hard-hit manufacturing sector shed jobs for the third year in a row in 2005, other industries have seen employment gains.

“The fastest growing industries have been construction and natural resources, which have more than made up for the losses in manufacturing during the past three years, according to a new analysis of Canada’s labour market,” the study states.

To the oil goes the workers

The study looks at the performance of the three sectors between 2002 and 2005, focusing on resource-rich Western Canada and Central Canada’s large manufacturing base.

During this period, employment in the manufacturing industry fell by nearly 149,000, or 6.4 percent, to about 2,173,000. Two-thirds of this decline occurred in 2005 alone.

The three-year decline in manufacturing jobs was the most significant period of contraction in the industry since the recession of the early 1990s, states the study.

On the other hand, the construction and natural resources sectors, particularly Canada’s oil and natural gas industry, are both booming, and attracting skilled workers by the thousands.

Since the end of 2002, construction employment has risen by about 167,000, a 19 percent increase. Job gains in construction have been particularly strong in B.C., Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta.

At the same time, employment in natural resources — led by Alberta’s oil and gas industry — has risen by just under 40,000, a gain of about 15 percent.

Employment in the Alberta oil patch has jumped by about 30 percent 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 an unemployment rate of only 2.2 percent.

Manufacturing losses have been widespread, but some sectors have suffered more than others. Losses were more pronounced in clothing and textiles, for example. Employment in the manufacturing of computer and electronic products was also down, having yet to recover fully from the high-tech meltdown.

Central Canada has been especially hard hit, with Quebec losing 68,000 factory jobs and Ontario 61,000 during the past three years. These losses account for just under 90 percent of the nationwide net loss in manufacturing during that period.


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