Quebec City, July 8, 2020 – A new study released today by the Human Resources Sectorial Committee of the Maritime Industry (CSMOIM) shows that the Québec maritime industry is responsible for 15 600 direct jobs, up 9% from the preceding study, which dates from 2016. Furthermore, maritime-sector organizations foresee that they will have more than 4 000 jobs to fill over the next three years.
This data was obtained through a web survey of maritime industry companies conducted from January to March 2020. The Maritime Sectorial Committee mandated Ad hoc recherche, a firm specializing in demographic studies, to conduct the survey and process the data collected. Maritime-sector organizations were divided into four broad activity sectors: transport by ship (including cargo and passenger transport), port authorities, port services (operations) and marine services. The study contains a wealth of information on the Quebec maritime population, such as regional distribution, proportion of men and women per trade, average ages, permanent and temporary jobs, etc.
Compared with the results of past studies, we note that the proportion of seafarers (navigating personnel) has not changed in relation to land-based maritime human resources, that is, those who work in port operations, port authorities and marine services. In Quebec, there are approximately two land-based jobs (10 000) for one job on board ship (5 600).
Employment growth and the increase in hiring needs reflect the vitality we have seen in the maritime industry for many years. This encouraging news goes hand-in-hand with a difficult reality where hiring is concerned. Many companies have significant difficulty finding the personnel required to support the growth of their activities. Some positions, especially among marine navigation officers and marine engineers, are very hard to fill.
The Quebec maritime industry is a vital part of our economy that, unfortunately, remains little known. The industry will have to work hard over the coming years to increasingly attract a younger generation of workers to the careers it can offer, both on land and at sea.
Photo : CSMOIM
