More Job Losses, Unprecedented Decline, But Reason for Optimism

Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey data is from the week of January 9 to 15, 2022. The surge of Omicron over this period led to increased business closures and a loss of 200,000 jobs across the economy (based on…

Collective Effort Essential as Labour Market Tightens

Late last week, annual labour force survey data for the tourism sector was released. That data shows the stark, ongoing impact of the pandemic on tourism employment. In 2019, tourism employed almost 2.1 million workers. In 2020, this fell to…

A Perfect Storm: Record Job Vacancies, Tightening Labour Market

In November, tourism employment increased by 11,200, which is highly unusual for this month. Since 2006, the only other time that tourism employment increased in November was in 2012, when employment increased by 5,500. Generally, tourism employment falls by roughly…

Canada’s Labour Market, Two Roads Diverged

By Joe Baker, Tourism HR Canada Board Member This article was originally published in STAY Magazine. One of the greatest challenges the hospitality and tourism industry is grappling with is the present state of our workforce. Workforce can be an…

Unprecedented Job Vacancies in Tourism

Statistics Canada has just released its job vacancy rates data for the month of September. The number of vacancies in the accommodation and food services industry was truly unprecedented. Tourism HR Canada expected to see a slight decrease from August…

Shaping Tourism Advocacy Priorities

Tourism HR Canada and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) today released a policy paper featuring insights and considerations to frame the upcoming National Policy Forum: Priorities for Tackling Labour Challenges in Tourism. The event will take place on…

Uneven Employment Recovery Hitting Tourism

Employment across the economy stayed essentially flat between September and October. The total gain of 9,700 workers (an increase of 0.05%) was due to a decrease of 51,200 full-time workers and a gain of 61,000 part-time workers. Within the tourism…

Priorities for Tackling Labour Challenges in Tourism

Tackling the labour challenges impacting Canada’s tourism sector will involve many strategies. Better utilization of tailored resources and supports, along with adapting business models and improving HR practices will be essential, but not enough. Addressing structural constraints requires an advocacy…

Tourism Employment Remains Significantly Lower

Employment across the economy often drops slightly in September. On average, between 2010 and 2019, seasonally unadjusted employment declined by 151,300 in September. This year, seasonally unadjusted employment increased by 34,300 individuals. Since the number of employed workers usually decreases,…

Examining the Economic State of Tourism

With the border closed, international travel to Canada in the first half of 2021 remained extremely low compared to 2019 (see Figure 1). Because the number of both travellers and tourists was so low, measuring any sort of increase since…

Where Can We Find Available Workers?

This summer, the tight restrictions on activities that had been put in place during the third wave of COVID-19 were lifted. Although the timing and degree of relaxation varied by province, Canadians were able to travel, go to restaurants, visit…

Tourism’s Acute Need for Labour

The tourism sector experienced a summer in which our ability to find workers was more difficult than ever. This was despite restricted demand from tourists, especially international travellers, and unemployment levels that remained above pre-pandemic levels. Many industries within the…