Toronto, Ontario — Despite the reported doom and gloom of the sector, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says the average employment in the industry at the end of 2019’s third quarter was up one percent compared with last year’s numbers.
The automotive industry analyst says an average of 691,400 Canadians were employed by the industry in the first nine months of this year, up from 684,700 this time last year.
Motor vehicle manufacturing employment was up 1.2 percent. Employment at automotive dealers grew two percent with 161,400 employees on average working from January through to September.
Motor vehicle wholesale industry employment was up 5.2 percent, followed by automotive parts and accessories stores at 4.5 percent.
While many sectors of the industry saw an upswing in their employment rates, other areas were not as fortunate. Employment in metalworking machinery decreased by 3.9 percent, while jobs in the motor vehicle parts sector and motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing decreased 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
DesRosiers says Canadian auto sales were flat in November at about 143,666 new light vehicles while year-to-date sales remained down.
“While Canadian automotive manufacturing employment is set to take a hit at year-end with the closure of the General Motors Oshawa plant, overall employment in the sector as a whole looks to remain relatively healthy,” DesRosiers wrote in a report.
The General Motors Oshawa facility—which opened in 1907 as a Chevrolet plant before its merger with GM in 1918—will close for good at the end of this week.
