OTTAWA — 2005 was another banner year for the resource sector in attracting Canadian workers says a new Stats Canada report released today in the Canadian Economic Observer.

These employment gains were reflect in rural areas and in large firms, with older workers continued to fill the bulk of new jobs. Jobs in small towns and rural areas rose 1.3 percent last year. Rural employment has matched urban areas since 2001.

Carriers wondering where exodus of drivers is settling down, may want to look at mining which led all industries with a 16 percent surge in jobs last year. However, oil and gas continued to experience double-digit growth. All areas expanded: extraction grew as new developments in the oil sands and offshore Newfoundland came on line, while the search for new sources intensified to replace dwindling conventional supplies.

Rural western areas lead all job growth, mainly in
construction and the oil patch

Construction jobs also rose, on top of growth in each of the previous three years.

Small firms with less than 20 employees continued to lag, as they have for most of this decade, says Stats Can. This is a reversal from the previous decade, when small firms dominated job growth, especially in the information and communication technology sector.

A look at which regions posted the largest job gains in 2005 confirms the recovery of rural areas. Northern Manitoba led the way with an increase of 10 percent employment while the oilsands Athabasca region in Alberta was close behind, fuelled by the explosive growth of the energy sector.

The revival of mining helped the north and interior of British Columbia. Cape Breton led the Atlantic region in job growth, up 6.5 percent, the sixth best among the 68 regions. Rural Saskatchewan was helped by the rebound in farming as well.

However, the closing of several lumber and paper mills was reflected in job losses in several rural areas of New Brunswick, Quebec and Northern Ontario.

The growing presence of older workers continued in 2005. The number of workers aged 55 years and over rose by 6.2 percent last year, compared with a 0.7 percent increase for workers under 55 years.

While the share of older workers in the labour force would inevitably have risen as the first of the boomer generation turns 60 this year, the growth of older workers was given a further boost by the end of downsizing in resources, construction and the public sector.

Older workers increasingly have the education and skills coveted by employers. Since 1995, 94 percent of the increase in the number of people 55 and older had some post-secondary education. As a result, employers seeking workers with post-secondary qualifications had little choice but to look at older workers: nearly 40 percent of the better-educated were over 45 years old last year, nearly double their share in 1990.