B.C. Labour Market Outlook Report: Strong Demand for Accommodation, Food Services Sector Forecast
The provincial government’s 2021 Labour Market Outlook (LMO) forecasts more than one million job openings over the next decade.
The report points to a strong demand for workers in the accommodation and food services sectors. In fact, with 65,000 job openings over the next 10 years the sector is one of five industries to account for about half of total job openings. The other four are health care and social assistance; professional, scientific and technical services; retail trade; and construction.
In the big picture, there are 1,004,000 job openings expected through to 2031 across B.C., and 63% of them will be to replace people leaving the workforce permanently, such as retirees. The remaining 37% will be new jobs created by economic growth and pandemic recovery.
The report notes B.C.’s workforce will be required to build new skills and knowledge to keep pace with the openings. Nearly 80% of the future job openings will require some level of post-secondary education or training.
The LMO also assesses the continuation of historical productivity growth and automation trends. It incorporates the expected increase in productivity due to COVID-19 in industries including tourism and hospitality and retail, as well as other industry-specific trends.
