Across Canada

Despite the significant attention paid to Canada’s loss of manufacturing jobs at a broader level, little is known about how individual Canadian regions have fared since the manufacturing employment decline of 2003-2009, caused by a combination of increased overseas competition, a rising Canadian dollar, and the 2008-2009 Great Recession.

The Survey on Employment and Skills, conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in collaboration with the Diversity Institute and the Future Skills Centre, was designed to explore Canadians’ experiences with the changing nature of work, including technology-driven disruptions, increasing insecurity and shifting skills requirements.

For Labour Market Information (LMI) to be accessible, relevant and suitable for meeting the diverse needs of Canadians, it must consider who is using LMI and what they are using it for.

The Future Skills Centre and the Conference Board of Canada research the paths that workers could take to transition into sectors that are growing rapidly, starting with the clean economy.

By combining preliminary data from an ongoing survey of SMEs, associated focus group discussions, and existing research, this report highlights opportunities to better support SMEs in the pandemic recovery and after. This includes a specific focus on embracing diversity and inclusion as a key way of addressing their skills needs.

To be successful, Canada’s skills strategies must address skills for innovation across sectors from solo entrepreneurs, to small and medium-sized businesses, to large corporations – and even within government itself.

The second wave of the Survey on Employment and Skills was conducted in late 2020, as the pandemic’s second wave gathered momentum in Canada and the number of new COVID-19 cases steadily increased.