The Canadian manufacturing sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but given the country’s rich history and agile nature, it can bounce back stronger than ever before. Ontario employs approximately half of Canada’s manufacturing workers, making it the leading manufacturing province in Canada, with 10% of overall employment being in manufacturing. Notably, the auto industry alone employs roughly 69,000 Ontarians.
Skill shortages that manufacturing companies face today will increase new, developed, and distinguished employment tomorrow. Skill shortages in the workforce encourage companies to invest in advanced tech programs at colleges and universities, and reinvest in employees, supplying highly-skilled training to their existing workers. Additionally, the government of Canada also offers apprenticeship tax credits and grants to integrally expand the workforce with well-trained persons.
The Future of Manufacturing In Canada
Though automation and technology are changing the face of manufacturing, it’s important to note that manufacturing jobs are becoming safer and more skilled. They focus on problem-solving rather than on repetitive tasks. While companies continually train and upgrade the skillsets of their staff to work cohesively with machines, they can attract highly-knowledgeable and eager new generations of talent. What we will begin to see is increased efficacy and human-centred value in manufacturing positions, while combining skills, knowledge, and technology together. This also calls for collaborative work between data scientists, engineers, designers, and technicians, and producing workers with extremely important skillsets.
Innovative Automation Careers
With such a highly trained workforce as illustrated above, agile companies have the ability to make ventilators in a global pandemic when needed, produce hand sanitizer, or shift production lines to create PPE for frontline workers. Contributions like these are extremely important to our community when there comes a time of need. With 1.7 million Canadians employed in manufacturing, accounting for $174 billion of our gross domestic product, Canada, and Ontario, both the economic future and the future of manufacturing in Canada look bright.
Innovative Automation is always looking for bright minds to join our team. Look at our open manufacturing career positions to find out more.