Labour Market Insights
Ontario’s New Response Framework and the Influence of COVID-19 on In-Demand and Searched-For Occupations for October 2020
As reported in last month’s blog, as of September 8, 2020, Ontario paused any further loosening of public health measures on reopening businesses, facilities, and organizations.
On November 3, the Province released COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open. This framework categorizes public health unit regions into five levels: Green (Prevent), Yellow (Protect), Orange (Restrict), Red (Control), and Lockdown. Each level has different safety measures for businesses and organizations, including targeted measures for specific sectors, institutions, and other settings. At the time of this publication (November 6, 2020), the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is at the Green (Prevent) level.
While the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) ended on October 3, there are still benefits available for Canadians, such as Employment Insurance (EI), Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB), and Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB).
The Job Board received 22,564 interactions in October (a decrease of 1% from 22,783 in September) from 5,765 users (a decrease of 4.8% from September). While users have decreased over the past two months, the amount of interactions have not changed as significantly, perhaps denoting that those who are looking for employment through the Job Board are doing so more seriously.
The top occupations women were looking at on the Job Board were:
Administrative Assistants, Retail Salespersons, Other Customer and Information Services Representatives, General Office Support Workers, and Medical Administrative Assistants.
The top occupations men were looking at on the Job Board were:
Material Handlers; Retail Salespersons; Other Labourers in Processing, Manufacturing and Utilities; Delivery and Courier Service Drivers; and Transport Truck Drivers.
The five most searched-for occupations overall on the Job Board for October were:
Administrative Assistants; Retail Salespersons; Material Handlers; Other Labourers in Processing, Manufacturing and Utilities; and General Office Support Workers.
The top ten in-demand occupations by local employers for October 2020 were:
Retail Salespersons; Transport Truck Drivers; Home Support Workers, Housekeepers and Related Occupations; Material Handlers; Delivery and Courier Service Drivers; Nursery Greenhouse Workers; Other Customer Service and Information Services Representatives; Retail and Wholesale Trade Managers; Other Labourers in Processing, Manufacturing and Utilities; and Cooks.
We are seeing an increase in demand for Transport Truck Drivers, up 11.5% from September, however, Retail Salespersons remains as the number one in-demand job in the region.
While not included in the top ten in-demand jobs, the region is also seeing an increase in demand for Security Guards and Related Security Service Occupations, up 28% from September. This increase in demand for Security Guards and Related Security Service Occupations could be explained by many establishments now looking to hire a Security Guard to enforce COVID-19 safety measures on their premises.
In the top hiring sectors for the region, we are seeing a growing demand for General Freight Trucking (up 12.5% from September) and Couriers, which is new to the top ten list and is likely due to many businesses continuing to pivot their sales online and the popularity of online retailers. The demand for Local Messengers and Local Delivery is down 17%, however, which could be due to retail stores opening and people feeling more comfortable shopping in-person while the region’s COVID-19 numbers were lower earlier in the month, as well as people taking advantage of the last few warm days of the season to enjoy patio dining rather than ordering meals for delivery.
THE FINDINGS OF THIS REPORT WERE SOURCED FROM:
MONTHLY JOB DEMAND REPORT
ABOUT THIS REPORT:
As of April 2019, the monthly Job Demand Report for Windsor-Essex is created by Workforce WindsorEssex using data collected from 14 unique national, provincial and locally-significant job boards. Between May 2017 and March 2019, job posting data was purchased from CEB Talent Neuron.
MONTHLY JOB SEARCH REPORT
The monthly Job Search Report for Windsor-Essex is created by Workforce WindsorEssex using data collected from four job finding tools, including WEexplore, WEmap jobs, WEjobs board, and the Bridge Timeline Tool. Gender and age information of users is voluntarily shared with the organization.
Questions? Please contact: info@workforcewindsoressex.com.