Employment in Markham

In these tough economic times, it's not housing prices or good schools or community spirit that's at the top of most people's lists when they go looking for a new city to call home. No, the question first and foremost on their minds is: will I be able to find a job? With Markham being a part of the Greater Toronto Area, it's easy to say that you'll just find a job somewhere in Toronto and commute, but why not choose an area where you can work close to home and actually get back to your house in time to have dinner with your family? Markham is one of these areas.

In terms of the number of people who are unemployed, Markham is about equal to the national average and slightly higher than the average for Ontario. This is perhaps because to access the largest pool of jobs in Markham – the high technology and health sciences sectors - you must have a post-secondary education. Because of this requirement, Markham is a very educated town. Almost 30% of the working age population has a university education, while a further 22% have an associate degree of community college diploma. If you have training past the high school level, it will greatly increase your chances of finding employment in Markham.

But what sort of job are you likely to get? Males and females often make quite different choices about their post secondary training, so it can be helpful to look at their employment figures separately. The largest industries within the male workforce in Markham are education, business, and manufacturing. This means that you'll find a lot of men with jobs in teaching, in the upper and middle management layers of companies, and helping to make the many different types of electronic and medical products that Markham produces each day.

For women, the statistics paint a very different picture. While many men work in construction and manufacturing and few work in health care or social services, women seem to prefer health care and social services jobs to positions in trades and manufacturing. The larges percentages of women, however, are in the education, business, finance, real estate, retail sales, and health care sectors. This mans that many women in Markham are teachers, business leaders, accountants, realtors, doctors, nurses, and retail store managers.

One of the most likely reasons that someone new coming into Markham might cite, however, is a desire to have a shot at working for one of Markham's top employers, many of which also happen to be internationally known in the business world. These top employers include IBM, American Express, AMD Technologies, TD Waterhouse, Allstate Insurance, the Canadian Automobile Association, Steelcare, Johnson and Johnson, and Scholastic. Each of these companies employs several hundred people in the Markham area even if their headquarters offices or main production facilities are located elsewhere.

If you're investigating Markham as a possible new home for you and your family, we strongly encourage you to review the opportunities mentioned above to see if your skills and training are an appropriate match. Doing so will maximize your chances of getting an appropriate job.