Manufacturing Industry

October 2010

· The industry employed about 144,100 people in 2008

· Average annual employment growth rate in the industry between 2009 and 2013 is expected to be -0.2%

Profile

The industry consists of businesses that add value to products or materials through mechanical, physical or chemical processes—for example, turning lumber into furniture. It includes businesses involved in manufacturing food, beverages, chemicals, textiles, petroleum and coal products, plastics and electronic equipment.

Occupations include meat cutters, machinists, manufacturing engineers, sawmill machine operators and instrument technicians.

Performance and outlook

Manufacturing is Alberta’s fifth largest employer. The industry’s share of economic activity in Alberta has increased from 1999 to 2008, although its share of employment dropped during the same period.

Employment growth in manufacturing has been sluggish and employment losses were posted early in 2009. The performance of many manufacturers is strongly tied to Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and tough times have spread. A number of oilsands projects that draw heavily on Alberta sources of supply, for example, have been cancelled or postponed. Although lagging national declines, manufacturing sales in Alberta began to drop in the last months of 2008 and have generally continued downward.

Refined petroleum and chemical products face weak global demand and rising prices for raw materials used in production. Risk could be moderated by government policies and programs, such as the Hydrocarbon Upgrading Task Force and Bitumen Royalty in Kind, to develop the industry and find viable alternative sources of raw materials (e.g. oilsands industry byproducts).

Because consumer purchases of necessities cannot be scaled back completely or indefinitely, the food and beverage sector of the industry should recover before most others. Future opportunities could emerge for the industry to provide profitable, niche products and respond to changing and more diverse diets, locally and elsewhere.

The industry’s recovery will depend largely on the strength and pace of recovery in the United States, which is the main destination for Alberta’s energy exports and a key market for the province’s manufactured goods. The current forecast is for slow growth in the United States in 2010 and a gradual increase after that. Employment in Alberta manufacturing will mirror the trend, picking up after further losses in 2010.

Through 2013, lower than average demand is expected for machine operators and related workers in chemical, plastic and rubber processing, supervisors in assembly and fabrication, and supervisors in processing operations.

About 1,900 jobs will be lost in the industry by 2013.

For more information see Alberta Career and Industry Outlook or Alberta Industry Profiles.

Occupations in the industry

For a list of occupations and related occupations in this industry, see OCCinfo Search by Industry: Manufacturing page.