Insurance and finance jobs key part of booming York region's growth

March 2nd, 2017  |  Canadian Business

Wondering where job growth is biggest in Canada? Look no further than the booming York region.

The regional municipality that sits atop the GTA was revealed to have had a 3.1 per cent employment growth rate in 2016 over 2015, equating to approximately 15,000 new jobs according to the "2016 York Region Employment and Industry Report," which analyzed economic growth from the past year along with some more long-term analysis. That figure is eight times greater than the national job rate, six times greater than the province's, and triple the GTA's.

A key contributor to that enormous job growth has been the insurance and finance sector. Those positions have been growing at a yearly rate of seven per cent, adding around 13,000 jobs over the last decade.

That figure compares fairly favourably to construction, and industry for which it is arguably more likely for large numbers of individual to find employment. Over that same time frame, the construction industry added an impressive 17,600 jobs.

During 2016 alone, the sector with the most jobs added was health care and social services. It recorded 2,400 jobs over those 12 months.

It's also worth noting that the York region has had a strong track record of producing full-time jobs. Although the rate has slipped 5.4 per cent from where it was at in 2006, 70.9 per cent of the jobs being created are full-time positions.