4. Toronto Highlights
• A major economic engine of the country with 83,000
businesses
• Major employment clusters: finance and financial
services, retail trade, arts and culture, tourism and
hospitality.
• Manufacturing and construction account for a
significant percentage of the economy.
• 2nd Greenest Canadian City in Leading the Fight against
Climate Change
• Toronto has the lowest risk in the world for employers
to recruit, employ and relocate employees
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5. Labour Force Characteristics
• Population
City of Toronto
• Population: 2,615,060, (7.8% of Canada’s total
population)
• Between 2006 and 2011, Toronto’s population
grew 4.5%.
• By 2031 approximately 20.5% of the population
will be 65 years or older and the proportion of
youth will be only half that of seniors.
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23. Green Jobs
• An estimated 13, 000 jobs have been created, projections
are another 40,000
• 400 new jobs created in Newmarket due to the opening
of a production line for solar panel components by
Flextronics
• Sungrow Canada Inc.’s new headquarters in Vaughn has
created 50 new jobs in manufacturing, research and
development, and technical support services for solar
voltaic inverters.
• Sieman’ s solar manufacturing facility in Burlington
started with 10 jobs and 50 more are expected to come
within the next 5 years.
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27. 10 jobs that did not exist 10
years ago
• App Developer
• Market Research Data Miner
• Educational or Admission Consultants
• Social media manager
• Chief Listening Officer
• Cloud Computing Services
• Elder Care
• Sustainability Expert
• User Experience Design
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Toronto Workforce Innovation Group works to ensure that Toronto is prepared to meet the demands of a changing economy. Our priority is to match the skills in demand with the supply of workers available and build a resilient, competitive and talented workforce.
We do this by:
identifying workforce issues that are characteristic of the local community; and
providing collaborative solutions by engaging stakeholders and working with partners.
Because we cover all sectors -- not just one or a select few-- our neutral position allows us to quickly connect the appropriate partners for the common good. We define innovation as creating value and improving the social and economic well being of all residents who live, work and play in Toronto. We envision Toronto prospering from an inclusive and integrated workforce.
Who we are: non-profit, Board of Directors representing labour market groups, member of Workforce Planning Ontario; one of 25 local planning groups funded by the province to identify the skills training/adjustment issues in our local labour markets and work with community partners on initiatives to address those issues.
One of the significant things we do is publish an annual Labour Market Update, out just last week. This report is based on census data, Toronto is one census division, employment information such as employer tax filing, information from the City and information gathered in consultations and meetings.
The report proposes a strategic framework that, this year, highlights four major themes that impact Toronto’s industrial sectors and inform workforce development; diversity, including age, ability, immigrant or newcomer status; green economy – corresponding to the Province of Ontario’s focus on green jobs and an emerging green marketplace; economic transformation – the change from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, and; technological change – the digitization of almost everything.
(Global Financial Centres Index - GFCI 9) – green city
(Aon Consulting’s People Risk Index) – lowest risk for employers
International immigrants are the largest source of migration to Toronto, while intercity migrants comprise the next largest group.
In 2012 international migration predicted about 85,000, growing to over 110,000 by 2015 Conference Board of Canada)
City continues to be a net importer of labour from surrounding areas
A very high influx of 18-24 year olds (attending many post-secondary institutions in the city)
A net out-migration among the other three age categories (0-17 year olds, 45-64 year olds and 65 years and older).
Toronto’s labour force totalled over 1.3 million in December 2011, representing a decrease of 1.4%
compared to the same period in 2010.
In 2011, City of Toronto residents continued to experience a higher unemployment rate and a lower participation rate than Toronto CMA and Ontario residents.
Youth in Toronto, aged 15-24, currently have an unemployment rate that is almost three times higher than adults, with a participation rate of only 58% — a rate that is almost 10% less than that of adults. Even when young people enter the labour market, the jobs that are available are often contract or temporary jobs, a situation that persists as people move into their 30’s and beyond. This generation is working in positions not reflective of their education. Unable to attain meaningful employment, young people turn to higher and higher levels of education.
In 2010 more males than females were employed and part time employment is more evident among women than men according to the Labour Force Survey. Employment amongst women has increased by 10.3% and for men by 4%, whereas part time employment increased by about 14% since 2005.
• Immigrant unemployment rates have been consistently higher than Canadian-born since 2006, but the economic downturn starting in late 2008 appears to have widened that gap from 2% in December 2006, to 3.4% in December 2011.
Between December 2010-2011 immigrants gained 63,800 jobs both in the service-producing sector and in the goods-producing sector. Notable job gains were in accommodation and food services (12,400 jobs), construction (12,200 jobs) and in professional, scientific and technical services (12,000 jobs).
• Job losses for immigrants were recorded in trade, information, culture and recreation
Routes TO. Employment is a Citizenship and Immigration Canada Contribution Agreement with the Toronto Workforce Innovation Group. The project began in April 2011.
The project was conceived as a result of consultations with employment service delivery representatives working with newcomers who noted the lack of Toronto-specific labour market information to help their clients find jobs and/or appropriate training/education programs. A federal task force on LMI reported that LMI was fragmented and not meeting the needs of job seekers or the intermediaries working with job seekers. Routes TO. Employment is an attempt to centralize information of key sectors in Toronto and make it useful and accessible.
The number of Toronto’s working poor has increased significantly. According to a report by the Metcalfe Foundation, the incidence of this category of workers was growing before the financial crisis of 2008 began and the manufacturing sector started to decline. The chart illustrates the areas in Toronto where the numbers of working poor are the highest.
Those classified as working poor:
• work a comparable number of weeks per year to the rest of the working-age population;
• hold jobs mainly in sales and service occupations (close to one-third compared to one-fifth of the overall working population);
• are more likely to live without an adult partner than the rest of the working-age population;
• are only slightly less educated than the rest of the working-age population, 52% have some
higher education, versus 57% of the working-age population; and
• are younger than the working-age population as a whole, 63% of working-poor individuals are
between the ages of 18 and 44 as compared to 50% of the working-age population.
Toronto’s largest industry grouping:
-Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, formerly known as Business Services, although 85% of residents work in service-producing industries.
- Financial Services
- Retail Trade
Manufacturing ( trend- employment in the Manufacturing industry in Toronto has been declining at an average annual rate of 4.7% since
2000)
- Health Care
- Education
Biomedical and biotechnology cluster, part of the health sector, is the fourth largest in North America.
The construction sector, especially the residential one, has remained strong, positively
impacting the finance, insurance and real estate sectors.
There is also a significant concentration of firms that are directly or indirectly related to “green activities”. The green sector is divided into six main categories, crossing a number of sectors, all of which contribute to “greening Toronto”. These include:
-Professional Support Services -Not for profit
-Corporate Energy Associations
-Finance and Venture Capital Technology Companies
This sector represents businesses that sell expertise, typically reflecting expert knowledge or a
professional designation, including:
• Legal Services;
• Accounting, Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation Services
• Architectural, Engineering and Related Services
• Specialized Design Services (interior design; graphic design)
• Computer Systems Design and Related Services
• Management, Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
• Scientific Research and Development
• Advertising, Public Relations and Related Services
• Other Services (photography services; veterinary services; marketing research)
The Toronto Region has a high concentration of Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employment compared to the rest of the province. Employment in this sector in GTA accounts for 48% of all Ontario’s jobs.
Concentration of subsectors
The proportion of this industry sector compared to all employment is 29% higher in this region than across the province as whole.
The concentration is especially pronounced in Toronto and York.
Toronto has extremely high concentrations of employment in the Legal Services and Advertising sectors, as well as high concentrations in Specialized Design, Consulting Services, Accounting and Computer Systems. In Scientific Research and Development Services, Toronto comes in below the provincial average.
Labour Force
The Computer Systems and Legal Services subsectors are the largest job clusters in the City of Toronto, equaling approximately 30,000 jobs each. Several other subsectors, in Toronto and other areas, have over 10,000 jobs (Census 2006)
Number of businesses
Between December 2008 and June 2011, the trend in the number of employers by employee size has been as follows:
• An increase in the number of firms with 1-19 employees;
• A slight drop in the number of firms with 20-99 employees;
• A considerable drop in the number of firms with 100+ employees.
A prominent manufacturing sector in Toronto.
Toronto dominates the provincial food industry as more than half of all the food processing in the
province occurs in the Greater Toronto Region.
It is the second largest employment sector in the city. With over 700 businesses in Toronto and 1,500 in the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), and nearly 60,000 employees in the CMA.
Bakeries are the largest single type of food processing plant, and this has resulted in diverse, high
quality products in this sub-sector. Meat processing is the next largest sub-sector, followed by beverages
Within the next 10 years, employment growth rates are expected to double.
Future Trends
A developing “new food economy” has emerged, characterized by new consumer demands for local food, and by an increased prevalence of small and medium sized companies focusing on responding to these demands. Increasingly, consumers are driving Toronto’s food market, indicating rising preferences for new kinds of products as local, ethnic or organic food.
The non-profit sector is made up of organizations that deliver programs and services from health care
to after school sports that improve people’s daily lives, foster cohesion, integration and innovation
and bring vibrancy to communities.
The sector can be divided into five subcategories:
religious organizations
welfare organizations,
arts, entertainment and recreation,
other non-profit
educational services.
Size of non-profit workforce
Approximately 36,930 people or 3% of employed residents in the City of Toronto worked in the core non-profit sector in 2006. Residents of the City of Toronto make up 21% of Ontario’s core non-profit sector labour force whereas the Toronto CMA residents make up 38.8%.
The non-profit labour force in the Toronto CMA grew by 17.1% between 2001-2006, outpacing the growth of the total labour force by almost 50%. Over a third (37.6%) of the Toronto CMA core non-profit sector labour force is found in the Child Day-care Services sector.
Tourism in Toronto is a key industry that plays an important role in the city’s economy; generating
employment, foreign exchange earnings, investment and regional development. Characteristics of the
sector include:
• Total spending by visitors is $4.35 billion
• Visitor spending in Toronto in 2010 generated $1.08 billion in total taxes
• Toronto has over 24,000 tourism related businesses employing 224,000 people
Labour Force
In 2010, nearly 30% of the people working in accommodation food and beverage services fell within the 15-24 age group. Sector with many entry-level jobs and career opportunities
Immigrants are an important source of labour for tourism industries in the Toronto CMA, holding
27.3% of jobs.
Tourism skills are transferable around the world. Depending on the nature of the job, work may be part-time or full-time.
Labour shortages
According to the Canadian Tourism Human Resources Council by 2025, the potential labour shortage
in Ontario’s tourism sector the gap between tourism labour supply and demand in Toronto is estimated
to potentially rise to 42,000 in Toronto.
We’ll talk a bit today about the green economy.
Talent is critical – the green economy is dependent on the combination of quality of place, talent and opportunity. But many stakeholders involved in workforce development, as well as job seekers, are confused about what exactly a green job is, where these jobs will be and what the training and education requirements for these jobs will include. There is also confusion about whether these green jobs will be new jobs with new skills requirements or expectations, jobs or professions that will require the same skills with new applications of those skills, or whether there will be a new occupations and trades to meet changing occupational requirements.
Training and Service providers are looking for concrete information on employment in green industries and about green occupations and careers – hard to find; classification categories such as the NOC codes or the NAICS don’t really apply to green jobs, hard to classifiy so hard to post positions; how do you advertise and where do you find people?
Government of Ontario)
More than half of the organizations providing green skill building programs are NGOs, not-for-profits, and community groups. These organizations
deliver close to 50% of all green programs in the Greater Toronto Area.
These organizations have developed considerable capacity to develop and deliver training, often in partnership with other organizations (OAYEC/First Work).
Education institutions often provide more than one skill building program and account for over 20% of the skill training providers, but
provide approximately one third of all green skill building programs. Colleges and universities are by far the most prolific providers of green skill building programs: 75 programs in the GTA are provided by 16 colleges and universities in the area.
Businesses, Industry, labour groups and professional associations also contribute significantly to the mix. They provide approximately 10% of all green skill training programs.
This report, Tending Green Shoots: Green Skills Building Programs in the GTA, identifies the employment opportunities and socio-economic benefits of Ontario’s green economy during the past five years. The report also provides growth projections for the coming decades.
Tending Green Shoots paints a clear picture of the supply side of the GTA workforce in relation to the green economy, providing a comprehensive overview of education and training efforts in place directed to green skills-building. The research demonstrates how a variety of actions by many groups in the GTA form a comprehensive engine that is driving sustainable socio-economic growth.
The intent of this research project was to identify promising practices and lessons learned in meeting
the needs of IEPs to attain employment that matches their skills, experience and professional credentials.
Specific objectives were:
• To better understand what practices are working well in terms of Toronto employment services
and their staff in providing sector specific bridging programs that meet the needs of IEPs;
• To identify what skill set is most appropriate for front-line workers in employment services in
meeting the needs of IEPs;
• To understand in what manner sector specific bridging programs might provide additional support
to highly skilled IEPs who want to find work in Canada.
1The iPhone was introduced in 2007, the Android shortly after. Since then, more than a million apps have been put up for sale in Apples App Store and Android’s Google Play.
2.As customer information becomes more and more vital to the retail experience, businesses are compiling data in droves—and hiring experts to make sense of it. “Library science is a really hot degree right now,” some studies suggest, “And data-mining could be one of the reasons.
3. educational or admissions consultant to help ease the process of interviewing and testing into schools from preschool to college. Admissions consultants can be paid thousands of dollars for their skills—which often include personal connections with school administrators.
4. Many generational experts are older employees, who’ve turned their experience with young people into an ability to advise companies on how best to engage, motivate and, yes, placate this often fickle workforce.
5.Making the most of online communities– what we generally call “social” networks–has become an integral part of businesses from small-town coffee shops to behemoths like Amazon and Microsoft, which both employ social media managers in their marketing and advertising departments.
6. One step up from a “social media manager,” (more on that later) the Chief Listening Officer keeps her ears (and eyes) on social channels and real life conversations to keep the company up to speed on what their customers are saying.
7. Companies are looking for database managers, engineers and strategists for storing and indexing massive amounts of data—we’re talking petrabytes (one quadrillion bytes) of information.
8. As the population ages and baby boomers become grandparents, an increasing amount of attention is being turned to the care of the elderly. Between legal concerns, staffing at residential facilities or consultants hired to facilitate end-of-life issues, jobs in this area are expected to increase.
9.
