Toronto’s economy supports 1,569 million jobs. 1,178 million are full time and 390K are part time. The average wage of a full time worker in Toronto is just over $60,000. Job growth in Toronto has been healthy and consistent for over two decades.

Throughout the mid to late 1980s, Toronto saw impressive economic growth, real estate appreciation, and strong performances by financial firms and pension funds. Employment reached a peak of 1.4 million in 1989 and then fell to under 1.2 million by 1997 as the real estate bubble burst and the early 90s recession kicked in and ran its course. A recovery followed, buoyed by the dot-com bubble. Since 2010, however, the rate of employment growth has been rapid and consistent year-on-year.

The institutional sector is seeing significant job growth. Universities, Colleges, private education employers, and hospitals have collectively added 17,000 jobs in the City in the last two years. Growth is at three times the rate of inflation in the institutional sector. Office jobs went up by 23,000 in the last two years, while the rate of growth over the last five years was 16.7% in that space. This impressive job growth underpins the ambitious construction of commercial office projects throughout the City that Tembo has outlined in numerous blog posts. It is driving a very low commercial vacancy rate which has been falling for many years and which sends a clear signal to developers on opportunities in the market.

Manufacturing, retail, community and entertainment, and the service sector all saw gains but these were mode modest than the office and institutional sectors. There are over 77,000 businesses in Toronto, up from a decade ago but lower than its absolute peak of just under 85,000 in 1990 at the height of the late 80s boom. 48% of Toronto jobs are office jobs, with the institutional sector coming in at number 2. Health care and financial service jobs are seeing the biggest gains in the last five years. Obviously, most of the jobs are in the downtown core.