Posted on Wednesday, Jul 20, 2011

In 2010, Canada's aerospace sector generated over $24 billion and employed nearly 82,000 Canadians. The Canadian aerospace industry bases its success on Canadian expertise, intellectual property and an entrepreneurial spirit. As the 5th largest aerospace country in the world, Canada is a global leader in an increasingly competitive and rapidly growing business sector. Canada's aerospace industry has been selected by the National Research Council of Canada as a key industry for its potential to contribute to Canada's economy.

Accurate and timely information about this sector in BC is critical if current and future labour supply is to meet the human resource requirements of the industry. Through the up-dating of labour market information of the industry's workforce, industry stakeholders can ensure that the aerospace industry in BC remains one of the leaders in global competition.

It was with these objectives in mind that the Aerospace Industry Human Resource Steering Committee, funded in whole or in part through the Canada British Columbia Labour Market Development Agreement, undertook a survey of the Aerospace Industry Association of BC (AIABC) member companies to collect labour market information of their workforce, with an emphasis on potential growth and what human resource requirements, issues and challenges will need to be dealt with to keep the industry competitive. The Transportation Career Development Association of BC (transCDA) administered the survey. Roslyn Kunin and Associates, Inc. (RKA) has been engaged to provide a statistical analysis of the survey data. Results are presented in this report.

In this report, the RKA team examined available information regarding the overall employment level and human resource requirements for the aerospace workforce in BC. In general, we have found that the workforce is male dominated, with a concentration in the 25 to 54 age cohort. The workforce overall has a good representation of skilled immigrants in BC. The representation of First Nations workers is close to their share of the overall labour force while the proportion of persons with special needs remains low.

In the national context, industry experts believe that the global financial crisis that negatively impacted Canada's aerospace industry in 2009 and 2010 appears to have come to an end and the industry is ready for positive growth in the near future. Canada's aerospace industry is dominated by the manufacturing sector and it depends on the health of the global aviation traffic patterns. BC's industry differs from the national perspective in that its Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) subsector is much larger in terms of the number of companies and the annual revenue generated. As such BC's aerospace industry is not as prone to challenges in the global aviation industry as its national counterpart. Nevertheless, the MRO subsector needs to maintain its competitiveness by constantly investing in and maintaining a skilled workforce, as well as keeping up with new technology and innovations.

BC's aerospace industry experts are concerned about the shortage of skilled labour in manufacturing and in maintenance. The current shortage stands at about 10% of the workforce. In the near future, it is expected to rise to close to 20% of the workforce, and will remain over 20% in the long run. (See section 4.1.3 in the report for further detail.)

Various factors and challenges related to workforce recruitment and retention have been examined in the report. Some of the solutions with implications for a long-term human resources strategy in the industry have been presented as well. Most importantly, the industry needs to work hard at maintaining a level of skilled workers to meet the needs of industry growth and to keep up with changing technological requirements. Additionally, the industry needs to attract new sources of workers to maintain its labour pool. Overall, companies support further work-specific training.

It should be noted that, in spite of the fact that this report has drawn upon many existing labour statistics and an industry based survey, one key element missing in the overall analysis is the lack of a comprehensive occupational analysis. Such an analysis is not within the scope of this study. In addition, existing secondary data have their limitations and are therefore not able to provide an industry specific picture of the major occupations, including their occupational demand and supply in the future. A further study containing occupational analysis is recommended in order to provide information necessary for an industry human resources strategic plan.

For more information you are encouraged to read the full report.