REPORT TITLE: Ontarios Job Futures Introduction For the youth of Canada, thinking about careers can be very

exciting. What will you be when you finish school? How many careers will you have? What are your hopes and dreams? he possibilities are limitless. !ut what options will be available to you as you graduate or start exploring new careers? here"s no crystal ball to tell you for certain, but there are many resources to help you predict what the #ob market of the future might look like. his report will examine how the #ob market changes, and how this will affect the working lives of Canadians in years to come.

Factors That Affect Jobs $ver time, the #obs available in a country or region can change. Consider that a hundred years ago, agriculture %farming and related work& made up a huge part of $ntario"s and Canada"s #ob market. $ver time, work shifted to manufacturing, and then to technology and services. 'ccording to the (overnment of $ntario, there are four main factors that affect what sorts of #obs are available to workers. First, the economy plays a role. When the economy is growing, there are more #obs. When people work, they earn money, which they spend. he money they spend results in more business activity and more #obs. $n the flip side, when the economy is not doing well, fewer #obs are available. )econd, changes in technology affect the work and #obs available. echnologies create new kinds of #obs, for example, *+ years ago ,webmaster- didn"t exist. 'nd /+ years ago there were few programmers in the world, but now they are commonplace. hird, demographics affect the #ob market. he word ,demographics- refers to population characteristics %for example, age, gender, and race&. Changes to demographics affect the sorts of #obs available. 0f there are lots of children in the population, then the community, province, or country opens schools and hires teachers. 0f the population has many senior citi1ens, then #obs for doctors, nurses, and gerontologists %people who work with seniors& increase. he number of working2age people also affects where there are too many or too few #obs. For example, in Canada, a large proportion of the population

%called baby boomers& will soon retire. his will create many #ob vacancies, and there might not be enough young people to fill those #obs. Fourth and finally, consumer behaviour affects the #obs available. Consumer behaviour is a term that describes people"s purchasing preferences and habits. When a population is relatively wealthy, then they might spend more on certain kinds of ,luxury- products. ' poor population would only spend money on necessities. 'nother recent trend in consumer behaviour is people"s concern with the environment. 3any people are becoming aware of the effects of their consumer choices on things like oil consumption, pollution, and landfill waste. 'n increasing number of people are trying to ,buy locally- when it comes to food products, which might mean that the number of local farms could increase, while employment in transportation %for example, trucking& could decrease. 's well, consumers are demanding less and less wasteful packaging, and more and more biodegradable products, which could affect people who work in these sectors of the #ob market. Employment ectors here are a number of employment sectors4industries in which people have #obs. he main categories are5 3anufacturing5 this refers to #obs that produce goods, such as factories or production facilities. 6tilities5 this refers to #obs that involve creating energy, such as #obs in nuclear power plants, coal plants, and hydro companies. 'griculture and other primary industries5 this refers to #obs that remove resources from the land, such as farming and lumber. )ervice2producing industries5 these #obs focus on providing a service, as opposed to ,making- something. his is a large category, which includes everything from retail to healthcare to education, to many types of business. 's you can see from the following chart, the service2producing sector by far employs the largest proportion of $ntarians. Employment by Industry in Ontario, 2004

Construction 6% Manufacturing 18%

Utilities Agriculture 2% 1%

Service-producing sector 73%

!hat "e#t$ 7ou now know that Canada"s and $ntario"s #ob markets have changed a lot over the past one hundred years, and that the service sector is the largest. )o what"s next? Human 8esources and )kills 9evelopment Canada %H8)9C&, which is a branch of the federal government of Canada, regularly researches the #ob market to determine where it"s heading. 't the present time, they are predicting #ob opportunities in the following5 'erospace !iotechnology Call centre #obs :nvironmental science #obs (aming and casinos 3ultimedia #obs elehealth %this is remote healthcare using technology to diagnose and even perform surgery& 0nternet2based learning and other distance education 'dditional data from the Conference !oard of Canada suggests that health care and social services will be the employment sector with the largest growth, as illustrated in the following slides.

%onclusion !ased on all the data, it appears that Canada"s and $ntario"s young people have a bright future ahead, with many interesting careers to choose from. Wise students, as well as anyone considering a career change, should follow the labour market information carefully, and choose education that will lead to employment opportunities in secure industries.