Canadian manufacturing jobs in decline

Canada’s manufacturing sector lost 322,000 jobs from 2004 to 2008 and fell from 14.4 percent of total employment to 11.5 percent, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The study of employment trends found the textile and clothing sector, which long was the largest employer among the group, lost almost half of its workforce, the report said.

In the automotive sector during the 5-year span, one-in-five motor vehicle jobs and more than one-in-four motor vehicle parts manufacturing jobs were lost, StatsCan said.

Regionally, the province of Ontario led the losses, with 198,600 jobs gone, or 18.1 percent of the whole manufacturing losses. British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec also lost more than 10 percent of the total.

The agency said Canada wasn’t alone in the scale-back.

The situation in Canada was noticeable for being somewhat delayed, with manufacturing jobs beginning to decline only in 2004, while other countries, notably the United States, had already registered significant job losses for several years, the report said.