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• Tourism industries in the Human Resource Module (HRM) include five industry groups which are defined as follows: transportation, accommodation, food and beverage services, recreation and entertainment and travel services. Generally speaking, an industry is considered a tourism industry if it would cease to exist, or continue to exist only at a significantly reduced level of activity, as a direct result of the absence of tourism.

• The HRM provides the following three main human resource statistics for the tourism sector as a whole and for each tourism industry group: jobs, hours and compensation. These statistics are available by gender, work status, by age group, by immigrant status and by occupation. The report is based upon data published as of March 31, 2011.

• All statistics provided by the HRM are related to production in tourism industries. For example, statistics concerning jobs are about the number of jobs required to produce commodities in tourism industries whether the commodities are consumed by visitors or non-visitors, that is, local residents.

• In 2010, the tourism sector in Canada accounted for 1.6 million jobs, that is, 9.2% of all jobs in Canada. Jobs in tourism and in the total economy rebounded in 2010 by 1.0% and 1.8% respectively, following declines in 2009.

• The food and beverage services industry group was the largest employer among tourism industries in 2010, with more than 50% of all tourism jobs (852,000 jobs). The second largest employer was recreation and entertainment with 267,000 jobs, followed by accommodation with 234,000 jobs. The transportation industry group was responsible for 211,000 jobs, while travel services provided 43,000 jobs.

• Working hours were shorter in tourism industries in Canada compared to jobs economy-wide. The shorter work week is explained by the higher proportion of part-time jobs in tourism.

• Since 1997, hourly compensation has been lower in the tourism sector than economy-wide. The gap has widened gradually from $6.16 in 1997 to $9.76 in 2010.

• Food-counter attendants and kitchen helpers and related occupations were the single largest occupation in the tourism sector with 251,000 jobs. Almost all of these jobs (235,000) were in the food and beverage services industry group. In the accommodation industry group, the most prevalent occupation was light duty cleaners with 44,000 jobs. Bus drivers and subway and other transit operators were the main occupation in other transportation industries, with 47,000 jobs, while program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness were the most common occupation in recreation and entertainment, with 32,000 jobs. Travel counsellors were the main occupation in travel services, but accounted for only 19,000 jobs.

• Two tourism industry groups in Canada had a notably older workforce: 63.3% of employees in other transportation and 45.0% of employees in air transportation were aged 45 years and over.

• On an hourly basis, immigrants were paid less than non-immigrants in the tourism sector, but on annual basis, immigrants earned more ($29,708 for immigrants versus $26,247 for non-immigrants) because they worked more hours.