While tourism employment is rebounding, the sector is still struggling to find and hire new workers – a situation that is likely to persist until 2025, says Tourism HR Canada.
This year, employment is projected to total more than 1.96 million jobs or about 94% the pre-pandemic level.
At the same time, overall employment demand in the tourism sector is not projected to surpass pre-pandemic levels until 2025 when it will surpass by over 2019’s employment level by 2.5%.
Notably, the number of people employed in the “travel services” sub-sector (based on Conference Board of Canada data) is forecast to surpass 2019 levels in 2025 by 0.4% (56,034 vs. 55,857). By contrast, in 2021 that figure dropped to 38,216 (2022 figures not available).
Detailed in a series of four national and regional employment demand projections designed to provide snapshots of tourism employment recovery, as well as more detailed looks at labour market information for three key demographic groups – immigrants, Indigenous peoples, and youth – the reports reveal that in 2021, tourism occupations had an average vacancy rate of 5.9%, more than 1.5 times the pre-pandemic level and almost two percentage points higher than the rate in the overall economy.
And while 2025 will be the year the sector can expect to finally get it’s head above water, that recovery will be uneven, varying by region, with employment in Atlantic Canada (+3.8%), Ontario (+5.1%), the Prairies (+4.8%), and Northern Territories (+5.6%) is projected to surpass pre-pandemic levels, while employment in Quebec (-1.7%) and British Columbia (-0.9) is projected to remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Other observations from the snapshots included:
• Employment gains in the food and beverage services industry group will be a key driver of overall tourism employment growth
• With targeted investments, Indigenous tourism is expected to recover more quickly than the rest of the tourism sector due to increased consumer demand
• Tourism’s immigrant labour force in May 2022 was 99.5% of its size from May 2019
• The youth unemployment rate remains the highest amongst all age groups.
Christine James, VP Canada for TL Network, says that staff shortages (and the inability to recruit new people) continues to be a serious problem for members, some of whom can’t handle the amount of business they are currently receiving as post-pandemic travel continues to surge.
“Nobody’s complaining about getting business,” she says, adding, “there’s no easy solution (to the staffing situation).”
Moreover, the problem also extends to suppliers, who sometimes don’t have the capacity to serve travel agents due to their own staff limitations. One TL Network agency lost three large group bookings due to supplier inaction, she said, adding, “It’s very frustrating.”
In Ontario, the Travel Industry Council of Ontario has launched a series of videos designed to both support recruitment into the industry and to help new agents once they get there.
TICO is also collaborating with Ontario’s colleges with Travel & Tourism programs to highlight travel sales as a potential career path for students.
The videos can be found HERE.