Ottawa, ON—A long road to recovery still remains for the construction industry, according to a Statistics Canada report on labour. Employment in construction remained little changed for the second consecutive month in September and was down by 8.1 per cent (or 120,000) compared with its pre-COVID levels.
Compared with February, employment in construction was mostly down in Ontario (down 54,000 or down 9.5 per cent) and British Columbia (down 39,000 or down 16.3 per cent). Statistics Canada breaks down the construction industry into three subsectors: construction of buildings, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors. According to the survey, employment was down from February to July in each of these subsectors with the largest decline among specialty trade contractors.
The survey broke down which demographic was affected the greatest in the labour sector. Core-aged men (aged 25 to 54) were affected by the recent slow growth in construction. Things were similar for females older than 55 in the construction sector, which saw a decrease in September.