Employment
Petrochemical Manufacturing (NAICS 32511)

Under this topic you will find information on the number of employees in Canada's Petrochemical Manufacturing (NAICS 32511) industry, 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…3251 > Basic Chemical ManufacturingIn this section of CIS there is no data available at lower levels of detail.
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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 Petrochemical Manufacturing (NAICS 32511) industry, including a breakdown of the number of production workers and administrative workers employed.

Employment by Type of Employee: 1998-2007*
Petrochemical Manufacturing (NAICS 32511)

Type of Employee	Number of Employees		% of Total 2007	CAGR** 1998-2007	% Change 2006-2007
	1998	2007
*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 **Compound Annual Growth Rate Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Annual Survey of Manufactures, 1998 to 2003; Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging, 2004 to 2007.
Production	1,104	984	76.0%	-1.1%	-0.6%
Administration	407	310	24.0%	-2.7%	-3.4%
Total	1,511	1,294	100%	-1.5%	-1.3%

The total number of employees in the Petrochemical Manufacturing industry decreased from 1,511 workers in 1998 to 1,294 workers in 2007, an average annual decrease of 1.5% over this time span. There was a decrease of 1.3% in employment between 2006 and 2007.

Breaking employment into its two principal components, the number of production employees in the Petrochemical Manufacturing industry fell from 1,104 workers in 1998 to 984 in 2007, a decrease of 1.1% per year on average. There was a decrease of 0.6% in the last year.

The number of administrative employees in the Petrochemical Manufacturing industry decreased from 407 workers in 1998 to 310 in 2007, an average decrease of 2.7% per year. There was a decrease of 3.4% over the course of most recent year.

Number of Employees by Type: 1998-2007
Petrochemical Manufacturing (NAICS 32511)

Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Annual Survey of Manufactures, 1998 to 2003; Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging, 2004 to 2007.

For the Petrochemical Manufacturing industry, the percentage of employees that are production workers increased from 73.1% in 1998 to 76.0% in 2007. As a result, there was a relative decrease 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 1998-2007.

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.