Market Trends
Employment Trends for 2009-2010:
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 [ 2009-03-02 ] |
Some economic and employment sectors are like the proverbial tortoise; they’re slow and steady. But ultimately, they’re always there at the finish line, offering workers a paycheque. From lower-paying jobs in retail and restaurants to higher-paying positions in health care, professional, scientific and technical services, these sectors always have openings regardless of the economic weather – a quality many may consider attractive in times when other fields are seeing serious cuts.
Healthcare
If BMO Capital Markets economist Robert Kavcic were dishing out career advice, he’d probably tell you to go to medical school. Or nursing school. Canada’s provinces and territories have a chronic shortage of doctors, nurses and other types of healthcare workers such as pharmacists, medical technologists and technicians.“The good thing about healthcare is that it has good long-term growth and stability,” Kavcic says. And it’s one of the least subject to the cyclical vagaries of the economy. In fact, healthcare has been growing by 2.6% a year for the past decade, compared to annual employment growth of 1.8%.
Jobs in healthcare and social assistance increased by 4.7% between September 2007 and September 2008. “I’m sure that’s not going to change as the population ages,” Kavcic comments. This demand is growing due to the aging population’s need for services and the impending retirement of many health professionals.
Retail and restaurant jobs
Jobs in stores, restaurants and the foodservice industry may not offer prestige, but they do offer stability. Peter Hall, chief economist with Export Development Canada, says the goods and services sector is more immune to economic downturns than other industries. “Everyone has to eat, so the agri-food sector is fairly recession-proof.” The last thing to get hit is non-durable items like foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, he notes.Sylvain Schetagne, the Canadian Labour Congress’s senior economist, agrees. “These sectors are more stable than others because they provide more essential needs.” Schetagne adds that jobs in this field cannot be exported or replaced by technology.
The work is there but it’s not part of a get-rich-quick scheme. “In many cases they are labour intensive but the wages are not good; there’s no access to unionisation,” says Schetagne. “Those jobs such as WalMart and Zellers will always be there. [In hard times,] people will leave luxurious products behind and go back to the basics – and that’s where the basics are.” These types of jobs can also be found everywhere in Canada, from small communities to large cities.
Business services
Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at RBC Financial Group, says business service sectors, such as accounting, tend to be among the more stable sectors of the economy. As Schetagne points out: “Accountants are essential for any business, no matter what happens.” Jobs in finance have grown 2.3% a year over the past 10 years. Other positions in business services include auditors, insurance and investment professionals and human resources specialists.
Public sector jobs
Byrne Luft, vice president of marketing with placement agency Manpower Inc., sees steady job opportunities at different levels in the federal and provincial public sector due to the need to replace some of the workers who are retiring, as well as some federal government spending that could lead to new jobs. Public service jobs have grown about 2.1% a year over the past 10 years. But between September 2007 and September 2008, public sector employment grew by 2.9%. Regardless of what’s happening in the rest of the country, life in the national and provincial public service sectors crawls along as it always has.
Scientific and technical services
Got a passion for the sciences? That’s a good thing. Medical technology and engineering are among the scientific and technical fields that are always on the lookout for employees. Jobs in the sector have grown by 3.4% a year for the past 10 years. Between September 2007 and September 2008, employment in the professional, scientific and technical services sectors grew by 3.6% according to Statistics Canada.Luft says the need for engineers remains good, regardless of whether they are petroleum, civil, structural or aerospace engineers. “Because of attrition, we know we cannot fill the positions with the amount of people we have,” he says. There’s a reason for the shortages in scientific fields. “Our kids are not taking math. They are avoiding it like the plague.”
Those high school and university math and science courses could pay off if they lead to steady professions in health care, business services, or such scientific fields as technology or engineering.
Different push and pull factors help workers decide what kind of work they’d like to do – and in which province. Read more about these issues:
Sweetening the Pot for Doctors
Relocating: 5 Questions to Ask Before Making the Move
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