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Where are travel and tourism jobs?

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Occupations in travel and tourism range widely, from tour operator and pilot to chef and limousine driver, but the bulk are in food and beverage services. Food and beverage services—with 926,000 employees, or just over half of travel and tourism jobs in 2006—is travel and tourism’s largest employer.

Transportation; accommodation; recreation and entertainment; food and beverage services; and travel services make up the travel and tourism sector. Together, these industries employed 1.8 million people in 2006. That represents 11% of the Canadian economy’s 16.8 million jobs that year.

From 2005 to 2006, the number of jobs in travel and tourism grew 2.1%, slightly faster than the 1.8% pace of job growth in the economy overall.

Jobs in food and beverage services were more likely to be part time: nearly half the employees worked fewer than 30 hours per week in 2006. They also paid the least, at an average hourly wage of $11.42 in 2006. Jobs in the air transportation industry paid the most, with an average hourly wage of $28.42.

Overall, the average hourly compensation in tourism-related industries was $17.95 in 2006, up 4% from $17.23 in 2005. This compensation level has been stable at about 70% of the national average from 1997 to 2006. Average hourly compensation includes gross wages plus contributions by employers to Employment Insurance, Canada/Quebec Pension Plans, company pensions plans, etc.

Just over one in five workers in travel and tourism was born outside Canada, while almost two in five are 15- to 24-years-old.

Travel services has the greatest share of female employees: 68% of staff were women in 2006. Conversely, 71% of transportation industry jobs were held by men.