Welcome to the WEdata Sector Blog Series where we review the supply and demand of labour for each of the region’s top sectors of employment. To read more blogs like this, visit www.workforcewindsoressex.com/sectors.
ABOUT THE FINANCE, REAL ESTATE & RENTAL, AND MANAGEMENT OF COMPANIES SECTORS IN WINDSOR-ESSEX
The three sectors of Finance & Insurance (NAICS #52), Real Estate, Rental & Leasing (NAICS #53), and Management of Companies & Enterprises (NAICS #55) together account for 7,999 business or 23.9% of businesses in the region. Although there are many businesses, in general they are not big employers and the three sectors employ approximately 8,290 workers or 4.6% of the total workforce in Windsor-Essex. Real Estate, Rental & Leasing is the sector with the most businesses in the region at 5,666 businesses, but is not a big employer with 2,355 workers. Finance & Insurance has 2,040 business and employs 5,810 workers, and Management of Companies has 293 businesses and employs 125 workers.
Organization Size: The vast majority of businesses in these three sectors are owner-operated with no employees: 78% in Finance & Insurance, 94% in Real Estate, Rental & Leasing, and 80% in Management of Companies. Of the 854 with employees, 89% are small with less than 20 employees, 10% have between 20 – 199 workers, and there are 8 larger businesses with more than 200 workers each.
Demographics: The female : male gender ratio in these sectors is 6:4. Real Estate basically has gender parity, while Rental & Leasing services is 3:7 and Management of Companies is 2:3. Most Finance related sub-sectors have gender parity, except for Credit and Insurance which have over 60% female employees. There is 1 female to 2 male ratio amongst self-employed workers, and female workers slightly outnumber males as unpaid family workers.
In Real Estate and Management of Companies, the largest worker age group is 35-54 year-olds. While Finance and Insurance has about equal numbers of workers who are 25-34 year old, as 35-44 and 45-54 year old. And Real Estate has the oldest workforce with nearly 35% over 55 years old, compared to 18% in Finance & Insurance and 26% in Management of Companies.
Work Activity and Income: Management of Companies has the highest median income for full-year, full-time worker at $103.6K, followed by Finance & Insurance at $52.1K, and then Real Estate and Leasing at $45.1K, which are all over the national median income of $36.5K. Finance & Insurance workers who worked full-year, part-time and part-year, full-time or part-time earned $22.8K and $28.1K, respectively. Real Estate, Rental & Leasing workers who worked full-year, part-time earned $16.4K and part year, full-time or part-time workers earned $14.2. There was no data for part-time or part-year workers in Management of Companies.
Education and Income: Nearly 80% of workers in the Management of Companies and Finance & Insurance sectors have post-secondary education, including apprenticeship, college, and university qualifications. This compares to about 60% of Real Estate, Rental & Leasing workers. In all sectors, those with post-secondary qualifications earned more than those without.
Retirement: National projected Sector Retirement rates to the year 2026 range from .5% in Finance & Insurance, and Real Estate, Rental & Leasing to over 4% in Management of Companies. When examining projected retirement rates by occupation, workers in Finance & Insurance have lower rates between 1.5-2.6%, while the rate for Real Estate agents and salespersons is over 3% to 2026. According to the Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) data the national median retirement age for workers in these sectors is about 61-63 years old.
Education and Training: The Enrollment by Institution page shows how many students are enrolled in post-secondary programs at colleges and universities across Ontario. Organisations and businesses can search for the programs and institutions that they recruit and hire graduates from to see recent enrollment numbers for specific programs and institutions. Many employers are concerned about the supply of skilled workers for their industry. Those businesses that want to attract the best and brightest talent are wise to be proactive and build relationships with education and training institutions and their instructors. Going even further to develop onsite opportunities for cooperative education and internship placements for students also gives employers an opportunity to test-drive potential employees. Everyone benefits. Consultations of employers in our region in this sector show that education institutions are graduating excellent candidates for this type of work. They possess the correct skill sets and qualifications. However, with the increasing technology use in this industry, education institutions need to be constantly updating their programs to reflect this change.
Automation: These projections indicate how much of a given occupation’s work activities could be automated. They reflect automation predictions that routine activities, such as predictable physical work and processing and collecting data, are more susceptible to automation, while those at low risk involve managing people and complex tasks employing expertise. The probability of automation is highest for technicians and clerks in these sectors and lowest for those in supervisory and professional occupations within each sector.
While automation may lead to some job losses and task restructuring, it is important to keep in mind that the Talented Mr. Robot report and others have concluded that in actuality less than 5% of occupations could be completely automated. The authors suggest that mitigating the potential negative effects will take collaboration between all sectors to increase understanding of the implications, identify local technological strengths and opportunities, and provide education and training to those whose jobs will be impacted. They also acknowledge that automation in sectors is likely to be slower than initial predictions for multiple reasons, including as prohibitive costs, some technological advances are not occurring as quickly as predicted, and people’s preference that humans rather than machines to perform certain tasks. Consultations with local employers show that some automation may be introduced in this sector for tasks such as data entry or bookkeeping.
As the local economy continues to improve all three sectors are benefitting. Consultations with local employers from this industry also provide promising evidence for this industry. Multiple employers have stated that they expect the industry to grow, as new technological advancements will cause the industry to grow, as well as expanding their client-base into different markets. However, there has been some difficulty in this industry for employers to find experienced and qualified candidates for positions requiring more specialized training, such as Chartered Professional Accountants and Senior Tax Accountants.
