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Ontario Manufacturing Jobs: Did August 2026 Reverse the Weakness Seen in 2025? · Can't Find Job? AI Is Quietly Replacing Millions of Workers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario Manufacturing Jobs.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did August 2026 reverse the weakness seen in 2025?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: By Ifiock Namdi, Human Potential Advocate.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: August 2026 brought a sharp rise in manufacturing employment.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: 22,000 more people worked in the sector across Canada, including 14,000 in Ontario.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is a striking contrast with August 2025, when Canadian manufacturing employment fell by 19,000.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: But a strong month is not the same as a stronger year.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Statistics Canada says manufacturing employment in August 2026 was little changed from a year earlier.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The fairest verdict is a monthly rebound and a steadier annual picture, not proof of a lasting factory job recovery.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: What changed between the two Augusts?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: For the full table, please open this article on can'tfindjob.com.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing employment had fallen 58,000 from its January 2025 peak by August 2025.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: The latest August report tells a different annual story.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Manufacturing employment was little changed from August 2025 because the August 2026 increase offset earlier declines.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: That distinction matters.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: The negative 19,000 and plus 22,000 figures are changes from the previous month in two different years.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: They do not add up to 41,000 jobs recovered.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: To judge the year-long market, compare August 2026 with August 2025.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The result is roughly flat, not a major expansion.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Labor Force survey counts estimated employment, not job postings or promised openings.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Its month-to-month changes also carry sampling variability, so one month is best read alongside the longer trend and later releases.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario's factory gain sat inside a week or month.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario gained 14,000 manufacturing jobs in August, yet total employment in the province still fell by 18,000.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: The manufacturing increase did not stop the broader provincial count from slipping.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: There is a second side to the story.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario employment had risen by a net 119,000 from March through July.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Even after August's decline, it remained 116,000 higher than a year earlier.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario's unemployment rate was 6.9%, down 0.8 percentage points from August 2025.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, August marked a monthly setback after several months of gains, not a year-long collapse in provincial employment.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: For factory applicants, this means the 14,000 gain is not a promise of broad hiring across every plant, trade, or region.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: For employers, it is a reason to look beyond the headline.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Manufacturing rose while overall Ontario employment edged down.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: The next month added a warning.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: As of October 20, 2026, the September Labor Force Survey was the newest check.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: It showed manufacturing employment falling by 13,000 after August's 22,000 increase.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Compared with September 2025, manufacturing employment was still little changed.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario's total employment also edged down again in September.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That does not erase August's gain, but it makes a durable rebound harder to claim.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: A separate check on factory activity was mixed, too.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Manufacturing sales rose 1.5% in current dollars in August, but sales adjusted for price changes were unchanged.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Transportation equipment sales fell 2.6%, while gains in primary metals and chemicals led the overall rise.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: These sales figures are not job counts, but they show why one national manufacturing number can hide very different conditions among industries.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: What job seekers and employers should watch.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: A monthly employment gain is a useful signal.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is not yet a hiring trend.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Applicants should watch for several months of gains and look at the specific type of factory work they want.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Employers should compare employment with orders, sales volumes, and activity in their own subsector before treating one month as a reason to expand quickly.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers also do not reveal whether a factory hired more people, kept workers it might otherwise have let go, or changed its use of machines.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: They describe employment, not the cause of each change.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Factory work is changing, even when job totals are flat.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Statistics Canada's third quarter 2026 business survey found that 24.4% of manufacturing businesses plan to use AI over the next 12 months.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was up from 7.2% in the third quarter of 2025.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: These are business plans, not proof that the tools were installed or that jobs were cut.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: There is also evidence that AI can change how people do their jobs.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Among Canadian businesses that reported using AI in the second quarter of 2026, 44.4% said they had changed training or staffing practices because of it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: 32% reported AI-related training for existing employees.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: The survey does not say every change meant more or fewer jobs.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: It does show why learning new tools can matter at work.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: A federal study of Canadian job postings from 2019 to 2024 found that, in manufacturing and some other resource industries, postings appeared to be shifting away from roles more likely to be replaced by machines and toward work where people and AI can support each other.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is evidence about job postings, not a forecast of exactly which Ontario jobs will grow next.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: For applicants, a practical bet is to build skills around setting up, maintaining, inspecting, and improving production systems, and learning how digital tools fit into that work.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: For employers, training current staff to work with new systems may help make technology useful on the factory floor.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There may also be room for more independent work over time.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: A skilled technician who can solve a plant's equipment or production problems could eventually serve several manufacturers as a specialist or contractor.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is a projection, not something the August Job Report proves, but portable skills give workers more options than depending on one job title at one plant.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verdict a partial reversal, not a full recovery, August 2026 reversed the monthly direction.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Manufacturing rose after the August 2025 decline.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: The year-over-year market, however, was still little changed.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ontario's total employment fell that month, and September's manufacturing count dropped again.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the gain was real, but it was a strong month, not yet evidence of a stronger 12-month factory job market.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: For workers and employers alike, the next signal to watch is whether gains persist and spread across more parts of manufacturing.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: All links to sources are available in the text version of this article.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the full article at can't findjob.com/slash blog.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 7:25
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• 7:31
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