Fast Facts
- One out of 16 workers employed in Canada earns a living in the construction industry.
- More than one million Canadian men and women have jobs in a wide variety of construction trades and professions.
- The construction industry accounts for 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) when considering its impacts on all economic sectors, and it maintains and repairs over $2.9 trillion in assets.
- Construction workers install, repair or renovate work worth $150 billion annually.
- The construction industry has about 260,000 firms: more than 65,000 in residential construction and 150,000 in trade contracting.
- Though the industry shines as a major employer, the average construction firm is quite small. In the residential sector, nearly 90 percent of firms have fewer than five employees. In the non-residential sector, almost 70 percent have five employees or fewer.
- Since 2006, the construction sector’s total employment has increased by more than 54,000 workers.
- Canada’s annual GDP growth rate in 2008 was -2.6 percent for all industries, but 2.8 percent for the construction industry.
- Total employment in Canada grew by 1.6 percent in 2008, when construction employment grew by 3.1 percent.
- The average age of a construction worker in May 2009 was 41 years old.
- In 2009, 36 percent of construction workers worked in Ontario, followed by Quebec (20 percent), Alberta (15 percent), and British Columbia (14 percent).
