Changes in employment, by industry

Employment increases in most industry sectors

• Only two sectors, agriculture and natural resources, have lower employment today than 16 years ago. Weakness in mining during the 1990s and declines in forestry and logging in recent years have contributed to job losses in natural resources. Recently, there has been strength in oil and gas extraction and this has offset some of the employment declines in other parts of natural resources.
• Employment has more than doubled in two sectors since 1987. In business, building and other support services, it jumped from 266,000 in 1987 to 612,000 in 2003. This sector includes industries such as employment placement agencies, telephone call centres, and office administrative services, as well as landscaping and janitorial services. Employment also increased more than twofold in professional, scientific and technical services, jumping from 480,000 in 1987 to 1.0 million in 2003. Strength in this sector was in computer system design services.
• The construction sector ranks in the middle, relative to other sectors, in terms of job creation since 1987. During the recession of the early 1990s, construction employment fell. However since 1996, employment in this sector has shown a strong upward trend, especially in recent years. This period was also characterized by an increase in the number of building permits.

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