They made doors, gum and jerry cans. Ontario’s ‘essential’ workers in manufacturing accounted for more workplace COVID deaths than any other sector — even health care workers.
The numbers can be pretty mind-boggling.
In their latest report, released Thursday, the Ontario government is projecting that 12,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario will be lost in 2020 — the biggest job loss in labour history.
With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the numbers and numbers — which includes a couple I was not previously aware — from the Ontario government’s latest report on COVID-19 deaths.
For Ontario, the COVID-19 death toll is expected to reach 2,853. The death toll in total is expected to be around 29,000. This puts health care at #1, and the Ontario government is still projecting a rise in deaths to 50,000 in the province. The projection is based on what is reported by the government. This is not based on what is known. I will include a few caveats about my numbers here in the notes.
I was also not aware of this gem from the government: “The average age of a resident who died from COVID was 75.”
The average age of a resident who died from COVID was 75.
They are trying to make the numbers look less terrifying.
Here is the sobering data: Ontario’s jobs in the manufacturing sector are down for a 13th straight year.
Ontario’s employment in manufacturing is down 5,100 jobs from the previous year, according to the government’s report.
The jobs in manufacturing were at 16.4 per cent of Ontario’s economy, up from 16.1 per cent.
In Ontario, the number of manufacturing workers has dropped steadily since 2006. At the start of 2006, manufacturing represented 18.8 per cent of Ontario’s workforce. By the end of 2019, that had fallen to just 15 per cent.
The latest government report shows no overall employment increase, and the biggest one-year increase so far is for part-time jobs.
The numbers make Ontario look like a company town. When the last government came in,