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Labour Market Information
This section contains information designed to help the tourism sector understand the nature of its labour market – size, employee characteristics, growth projections, and future skills requirements.
In 2008, a total of 1.8 million people were employed in the tourism sector in Canada, which represents 10% of all employment in the country. The largest industry group in the tourism sector is food and beverage services, which employs 827,900 people.
In 2007, the number of jobs in tourism industries increased 3.4%, while the number of jobs economy-wide was up only 2.1%. The weekly hours worked in tourism industries averaged 29.8 hours in 2007, which reflects the high proportion of part-time jobs found in tourism industries.
In 2007, average compensation for tourism industry jobs was $18.33/hour, an increase of 5.1% from one year earlier. Hourly compensation in the tourism sector increased at a faster pace than the economy overall.
Notwithstanding current economic conditions, labour shortages for the tourism sector in the medium to long term will continue to be a challenge. By 2025, the potential labour shortage for the tourism sector is projected to balloon to nearly 257,000 jobs.
