Employers

At the beginning of the 20th century, most Canadians worked the earth for their daily bread. Toiling on the land and under the ground, our farmers, miners and loggers made up a sizable portion of the labour force. Today, work is far less back-breaking for most Canadians. Nearly three-quarters of all jobs are in the services industries, such as the retail and wholesale trades, health and social services, and education.

Manufacturing remains a large employer of Canadians, despite being slow to recover in job growth following the recession of the early 1990s. However, by the end of that decade and into the new millennium, the manufacturing industry led the economy in job creation. Since virtually all manufacturing jobs (97%) are full time, the industry contributed significantly to the jump in full-time employment. Manufacturing accounted for 18% of all full-time employment in 2002. The manufacturing and trade industries employ the highest number of Canadian workers (full and part time), each accounting for about 15% of the labour pool in 2002.

The construction, transportation and warehousing, and services industries—especially wholesale and retail trade—also saw strong job growth in 1999, a growth that continued for the next four years. Conversely, primary industries such as forestry, fishing, mining, and oil and gas extraction experienced serious employment declines in 1999 followed by positive growth in mining, oil and gas extraction until the beginning of 2003 when another poor year occurred.

Among the services industries, the professional, scientific and technical trades saw spectacular growth in the 1990s. This industry employed almost one million people in 2002, a 73% increase from 1990 compared with an 18% increase from all industries. The professional, scientific and technical trades represented over 6% of all employees in 2002 while those working in the wholesale and retail trade industries accounted for 16%.

In 2002, the public sector—which comprises all three levels of government, including government business enterprises, health and social service institutions, and school boards, universities and colleges—averaged over 2.8 million jobs. In contrast, in 1992, the public sector consisted of 3.1 million jobs. Employment declined annually from 1992 to 1999, at which point it began to recover from the tight overall budgetary control and government restructuring during the 1990s.

More than one-half (52%) of the decline in public sector employment from 1992 to 1999 came from general public administration—federal (including armed forces), provincial and territorial, and local administrations. In the same manner, the addition of 37,166 jobs in general government from 1999 to 2002 explains close to 50% of the increase in public sector employment during the same period. The vast majority of these jobs (95%) were in the federal government.