Bracing for Automation: What Are Canada’s Most Vulnerable Jobs?
Rapid technological change makes it more critical than ever that Canadian leaders understand how the adoption of new technologies impacts Canada’s labour markets. This briefing looks at which occupations have a higher risk of significant transformation and offer few options for workers to transition into lower-risk occupations.

Highlights
- Nearly one in five Canadian employees are in occupations at high risk of automation with few or no options to transition into lower-risk occupations without significant retraining.
- The top five industries in which these occupations are most concentrated are accommodation and food services, manufacturing, retail trade, construction, and health care and social assistance
- Based on total number of people employed, the top five occupations of this type in Canada are food counter attendants, kitchen helpers, and related; cashiers; administrative assistants; general office support workers; and cooks.
- Indigenous people, women, young people, and visible minorities are disproportionately represented in most of the top occupations.
Related Content
Valuing Skills in Canada: A Statistical Approach
In this research, we examine the relationship between skills and income, considering which skills have…
Digital Skills and the Skills Gap
For more than 20 years, industry has been decrying the skills gap and the need…
Quality of work of Canada’s contingent workforce
To examine further the nature of gig work in Canada and understand the quality of…