The Windsor region lost 8.7 per cent of its workforce due to the economic turbulence that has buffeted the region, according to the 2011 National Household Survey.
The census metropolitan area for Windsor saw 12,850 people disappear from a labour force of 166,895 in the 2006 census. The 2011 survey counted 154,045 people in the area’s workforce.
The number of people employed in 2011 (138,080) was down 14,915 people and represented a 10 per cent decrease.
The figures are based on the number of employed in the first week of May 2011 in Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Lakeshore and Amherstburg.
“That’s a pretty big decrease,” said Tanya Antoniw, director of project management for Workforce Windsor Essex.
“That’s one of the big challenges I take away from those numbers. A workforce that continues to decline will cause real problems in the future.”
Retired University of Windsor business professor Alfie Morgan said he was surprised the numbers weren’t worse for the region.
Morgan said he believes this economic downturn is even worse for the local economy than the last time Chrysler had a near-death experience in the early 1980s.
“This is worse because it reflects the new normal,” said Morgan, who remains involved in aiding small businesses in the community.
“With the loss of manufacturing jobs and increased competition, many people have given up on finding work. A lot aren’t even included in the statistics.”
Instead an increasing number of people are turning to self-employment.
The percentage of Windsor-area residents listing themselves as self-employed has doubled to 8.1 per cent. Nationally 10.9 per cent of the workforce is self-employed.
“People are responding in creative ways,” said Morgan citing the recent startup of a downtown rickshaw business as an example.
“People are starting their own businesses. As a supporter of small business, this is very encouraging to me.”
As troubling as the survey numbers may be, Antoniw said the region is gradually rebuilding its workforce.
Windsor’s current unemployment rate of 9.7 is a long way from the low point in 2009 when it hit 15 per cent.
“We have to finds ways of attracting and keeping our people,” Antoniw said.
“For several years, we had a net migration taking place. We’ve stopped that. We actually had positive net number in 2012 of 1,257.”
Assembly, inspection and testing of cars topped the list of most popular local occupations with 6,235 employees followed by retail sales (5,270) and nursing (3,510).
However, on an industry basis, the auto industry was bumped off the top perch by those working in education. That sector employed 7,650 people.
In the occupations category, elementary and kindergarten teachers were placed in a separate category from their fellow education workers, accounting for the different rankings.
Hospitals (5,745) ranked third followed by motor vehicle parts manufacturing (4,995), limited service restaurants (4,060) and nursing and residential care facilities (3,740) on the top industries list.
Education, hospitals and local government accounted for 12.1 per cent of local employment while car manufacturing, auto parts and metal working totalled 10.7 per cent.
Morgan said the growth of public sector employment is a bubble that is “unsustainable.”
“The public sector is supported by the economy’s engines of manufacturing and private business and those engines have slowed,” Morgan said.
“The only other way to find the money to support the public sector is raising taxes or debt. Those aren’t viable options.
“This public sector growth will be short-lived.”
The one sector of the economy that continues to call out for help is skilled trades. For employers, they’ll find no comfort in these Statistic Canada numbers.
While people under 35 have achieved better educational advancement in every area than their older counterparts, the one exception to that is in skilled trades.
The numbers of the young (25-to-34) holding skilled-trade certification or apprenticeship (10.7 per cent) was 2.1 per cent lower than those in the 55-to-64 category.
“That’s an area of great concern to our partners in the skilled trades,” Antoniw said. “It shows the shortage is only going to get worse.”
It’s a shortage that a recent Workforce Windsor Essex study revealed is costing local firms $43 million in overtime and lost business. The Conference Board of Canada estimates the skills gap is costing the provincial economy $23.4 billion in lost GDP and $3.7 billion in tax revenues.
In addition, the skilled trades haven’t been able to make inroads in attracting female workers.
Women compose only 21.1 per cent of the skilled trades workforce.
“We have to explode the myths around the skill trades,” Antoniw said. “It’s now actually a very technologically advanced job where most of the heavy labour is done by robotics.”
It’s also particularly painful for local employers to see those holding STEM degrees (math, computer and information sciences, architecture, engineering) leave the area.
All told, the region lost about 2,000 people holding these much-prized diplomas or degrees between 2006 and 2011.
“While a lot of this sounds depressing, there is also another side I’m seeing,” Morgan said. “We’re evolving and this isn’t the first time we’ve gone through a transitional period.
“They (STEM degree holders) can be very entrepreneurial and not all want to leave. I see them starting up here and I see some doing business internationally now.”
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