Employment
Food Manufacturing (NAICS 311)

Under this topic you will find information on the number of employees in Canada's Food Manufacturing (NAICS 311) subsector, broken down between production employees and administrative employees. This information can provide you with insight into how labour is used in the subsector and may help you to identify important trends in how goods are manufactured.

Change NAICS Level…31-33 > Manufacturing3111 > Animal Food Manufacturing3112 > Grain and Oilseed Milling3113 > Sugar and Confectionery Product Manufacturing3114 > Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing3115 > Dairy Product Manufacturing3116 > Meat Product Manufacturing3117 > Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging3118 > Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing3119 > Other Food Manufacturing
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• Employment by Type of Employee
• Important Notes on Employment Data
• Understanding Employment Types

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Employment by Type of Employee

Initially we examine the total employment in the Food Manufacturing (NAICS 311) subsector, including a breakdown of the number of production workers and administrative workers employed.

Employment by Type of Employee: 2000-2009*
Food Manufacturing (NAICS 311)

Type of Employee	Number of Employees		% of Total 2009	CAGR** 2000-2009	% Change 2008-2009
	2000	2009
*Prior to 2004, data covers incorporated establishments with employees, primarily engaged in manufacturing and with sales of manufactured goods equal or greater than $30,000. **Compound Annual Growth Rate Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Annual Survey of Manufactures, 1998 to 2003; Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging, 2004 to 2008.
Production	194,783	172,308	78.0%	-1.2%	0.7%
Administration	36,318	49,578	22.0%	3.2%	1.5%
Total	231,101	221,886	100%	-0.4%	0.9%

The total number of employees in the Food Manufacturing subsector decreased from 231,101 workers in 2000 to 221,886 workers in 2009, an average annual decrease of 0.4% over this time span. There was an increase of 0.9% in employment between 2008 and 2009.

Breaking employment into its two principal components, the number of production employees in the Food Manufacturing subsector fell from 194,783 workers in 2000 to 172,308 in 2009, a decrease of 1.2% per year on average. There was an increase of 0.7% in the last year.

The number of administrative employees in the Food Manufacturing subsector increased from 36,318 workers in 2000 to 49,578 in 2009, an average increase of 3.2% per year. There was an increase of 1.5% over the course of most recent year.

Number of Employees by Type: 2000-2009
Food Manufacturing (NAICS 311)

Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Annual Survey of Manufactures, 2000 to 2003; Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging, 2004 to 2009.

For the Food Manufacturing subsector, the percentage of employees that are production workers decreased from 84.0% in 2000 to 78.0% in 2009. As a result, there was a relative increase in the proportion of administrative workers.

Aside from cyclical economic fluctuations, several factors may contribute to changes in the composition of an industry segment's workforce.

In an increasingly knowledge-based economy, the administrative component of the workforce (including business administrators, managers and professionals such as engineers and computer and research scientists) may be growing in significance.

Technological advances may result in lower demand for production workers, which can in turn have a proportional impact on requirements for managers and support staff. At the same time, the trend of outsourcing work for contract rather than performing it in-house can have an impact on employment levels for both production and administrative staff.

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Important Notes on Employment Data

The data in this section come from Statistics Canada's Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging. Data are available for the years 2000-2009.

Due to methodological changes to the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (summarized in the Data Sources section of this site), caution should be used when interpreting trends in the data presented below.

Employment statistics obtained from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging are annual averages as part-time and temporary employees are included as are employees absent with pay. Contract workers, company pensioners, outside directors of incorporated companies and persons working on a full commission basis are excluded from the estimates.

Additional information related to employment is available in the Salaries and Wages and Performance sections of Canadian Industry Statistics.

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Understanding Employment Types

Employment within the manufacturing sector is separated into two major categories: production workers and non-production workers. Non-production workers are often called administrative workers and this convention is adopted on this site.

Production employees include those employees engaged in processing, assembling, storing, inspecting, handling, packing, maintenance, repair, janitorial, watchmen services and working foremen.

Administrative employees include all employees that are not involved directly in production and related manufacturing activities. Examples include those involved in management, personnel, secretarial, sales, finance and other similar activities.