Employees in manufacturing

The largest employer in manufacturing is the food and beverage industry

• About 294,000 employees or 14% of all manufacturing workers—more than in any other part of manufacturing—were in the food and beverage industry in 2003. While this industry is prominent in all provinces, it is particularly important in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, where it employed more than half the manufacturing workers in 2003.
• Transportation equipment factories have the second largest number of workers in manufacturing. More than two-thirds of transportation equipment employees (some 161,000 of 239,000 employees in 2003) are in Ontario and over 48,000 are in Quebec. Three in five employees in this industry manufacture motor vehicle parts or vehicles. Since 1991, the number of employees in the motor vehicle parts industry has been on an upward trend, while employment in motor vehicle manufacturing has declined.

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