Regions in Focus – Kitchener, Ontario

EMSI recently released Analyst for Canada, a web-based labour market research tool perfect for community and public colleges interested in evaluating the workforces of their communities and surrounding areas. Analyst for Canada offers colleges the ability to get a better picture of where the jobs – and the money – are in their local economy, as well as to understand demographic shifts that may influence their futures and the futures of their communities.

Let’s take Kitchener, Ontario as an example. Kitchener is home to the main campus of one of Canada’s largest public polytechnic colleges, Conestoga College. Conestoga has a total of 9,000 full-time students and more than 35,000 part-time students. With that many students, Conestoga needs to know which industries and occupations in the Kitchener area have the most jobs, the highest wages, and the highest growth rate.

We’ll evaluate the Waterloo Census Division as a whole — including the heavily interdependent cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge — in order to get a sense of the regional context for the Kitchener job market. Right away it becomes clear that Kitchener is part of a diverse, growing job market. Unlike some Ontario cities, like Sudbury or Thunder Bay, Kitchener’s job market isn’t dominated by a single industry or occupation. Rather, there are a number of industries of similar size. Here are some of the leaders:

NAICS CodeDescription2008 Jobs2013 JobsChange% Change2011 Avg. Annual Wage2011 Provincial Earnings6111Elementary and secondary schools9,60010,3577578%$58,545$57,6579130Local, municipal and regional public administration7,3698,0656969%$46,984$49,1827222Limited-service eating places7,2418,01777611%$14,088$16,2606113Universities9,6207,362(2,258)(23%)$49,818$49,3434451Grocery stores6,8546,9551011%$21,062$19,1596221General medical and surgical hospitals6,2766,94867211%$53,883$58,1517221Full-service restaurants5,9416,65070912%$14,930$16,3233342Communications equipment manufacturing4,3654,90153612%$65,088$68,9192382Building equipment contractors4,5704,8062365%$68,102$60,1105415Computer systems design and related services4,2054,77456914%$70,838$75,1185241Insurance carriers5,3354,349(986)(18%)$62,287$66,6343361Motor vehicle manufacturing3,5524,14959717%$71,692$67,636Total78,04083,9265,8868%$47,004$45,697Source: Employees - EMSI 2012.4 BETA

Some of these industries are mostly composed of low-paying, entry-level jobs requiring little or no education. Once we refine the data to only include industries that pay above the regional average, we see a few better options:

NAICS CodeDescription2008 Jobs2013 JobsChange% Change2011 Avg. Annual Wage2011 Provincial Earnings6111Elementary and secondary schools9,60010,3577578%$58,545$57,6576113Universities9,6207,362(2,258)(23%)$49,818$49,3436221General medical and surgical hospitals6,2766,94867211%$53,883$58,1513342Communications equipment manufacturing4,3654,90153612%$65,088$68,9192382Building equipment contractors4,5704,8062365%$68,102$60,1105415Computer systems design and related services4,2054,77456914%$70,838$75,1185241Insurance carriers5,3354,349(986)(18%)$62,287$66,6343361Motor vehicle manufacturing3,5524,14959717%$71,692$67,636Total47,52447,6441200%$60,700$59,746Source: Employees - EMSI 2012.4 BETA

You can’t train for an industry, though. Industries are made up of people in occupations, which is why Analyst includes data on staffing patterns. Let’s look at the staffing patterns for two of the leading industries in the Kitchener area.

Motor Vehicle Manufacturing

Motor vehicle manufacturing has increased noticeably over the last five years in the Kitchener region – 16.8%, while the nation is actually down 6.8%. Jobs in this sector also earn noticeably more in Kitchener than the national average. Here are the leading occupations in the Kitchener motor vehicle manufacturing industry:

OccupationEmployed in Industry (2011)% of the Total Jobs in Industry (2011)Motor vehicle assemblers, inspectors and testers (J212)1,31034.7%Supervisors, motor vehicle assembling (J021)38510.2%Industrial electricians (H212)1975.2%Construction millwrights and industrial mechanics (except textile) (H411)1594.2%Material handlers (H812)1473.9%Source: Employees - EMSI 2012.4 BETA

Motor vehicle assemblers, inspectors, and testers declined slightly since 2008, although they’re significantly improved from their 2010 low point. They earn an average of $27.73. Industrial electricians, another major part of the industry, are up a notable 28.4% across the region, and earn a healthy $29.46.

Communications Equipment Manufacturing

The Kitchener area has also seen very healthy growth in communications equipment manufacturing – 12% in an industry that has declined 20% nationwide. In fact, Kitchener’s communications equipment manufacturing industry now has an eyebrow-raising location quotient of 12.42. (For more about location quotient, see this overview). These are the leading jobs within the industry:

OccupationEmployed in Industry (2011)% of the Total Jobs in Industry (2011)Electronics assemblers, fabricators, inspectors and testers (J213)76917.4%Computer programmers and interactive media developers (C074)2435.5%Electrical and electronics engineers (C033)2064.7%Software engineers and designers (C073)1964.4%Electrical and electronics engineering technologists and technicians (C141)1703.8%Source: Employees - EMSI 2012.4 BETA

Electronics assemblers, fabricators, inspectors and testers earned an average of $17.32 an hour – not terribly high. The second-largest occupation, computer programmers and interactive media developers, made a much more interesting $33.98, and increased by almost 40% since 2008.

Data and analysis for this post came from Analyst, EMSI’s web-based labour market tool. Follow us on Twitter @desktopecon. Email Fraser Martens if you have any questions or comments, or would like to see further data.