Looking for a job? A new report suggests you might have more luck if your search includes the retail or financial industries.
The Workforce Planning Board of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin has released a new report looking at nearly 24,000 available jobs posted online in the area during the second half of 2016.
Of those, it was able to classify more than 17,000 postings as one of many specific job categories monitored by the federal government.
A total of 1,213 of those jobs turned out to be in retail sales – more than any other classification.
That number was followed by 765 postings for miscellaneous customer service and information service jobs, 751 postings for miscellaneous sales jobs, 607 jobs in retail and wholesale management, and 605 postings for software engineers and designers.
Other classifications in the top 10 included wholesale trade sales, transport truck drivers, housekeepers and home support workers, registered nurses, and general office support workers.
When the jobs were broken down by industry instead, finance and insurance led the way with 1,775 postings, followed by retail and wholesale.
The labour board also looked at the jobs most often advertised for specific education and skill levels.
It found that university degrees were most often required for jobs in retail and wholesale trade, as well as software engineering and design.
College or an apprenticeship training was sought by employers looking for millwrights, mechanics and cooks, while people advertising jobs in retail sales said high school education would be enough to qualify a candidate.
More than 1,500 of the postings advertised on-the-job training, with sales jobs, cashier jobs and retail shelf stocking jobs the most common.
