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The Canadian Labour Market at a Glance
Female employment, by occupation
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Nearly one in three women work in sales and service occupations
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Fifty-six percent of women work in two occupational categories. Just over 2.3 million women were employed in sales and service occupations in 2007, accounting for 29.3% of all working women over the age of 15. About one-third of these women worked as retail salespeople, sales clerks, cashiers or retail supervisors. An additional 2.2 million women (27.0%) worked in business, finance and administrative occupations. A smaller but still significant number of women also worked in occupations related to social science, education, government service and religion (985,000 or 12.3% of women) and there were also 813,000 (10.2%) employed in health occupations.
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Overall, relatively few women were found in occupations in a primary industry (only 115,000 in farming, forestry, mining or fishing) or in trades, transport and equipment operation (173,000) in 2007.
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From 1996 to 2007, the largest employment increase among women was in sales and service occupations; the second-largest was in business, finance and administration. There were also significant gains in occupations in social science, education, government service and religion.
Chart 15
Distribution of female employment,
by occupation, 2007
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, CANSIM table 282-0010.
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