The Census gives us good information on the age of workers in the province. While it doesn’t provide a median or average age by occupation it does breakdown the number of people working in 500 occupations (and aggregations) by age cohort. Using this data we can suggest which occupations are the youngest and which are the oldest.
Of course the entire labour market is aging so I am more interested in the difference between New Brunswick and Canada. Which occupational groups are either much younger or older than the national level?
New Brunswick’s 10 oldest occupations are listed below (those with a minimum of 1,000 workers). The oldest by far is NOC 7611 construction trades helpers and labourers where there are 65% more workers over the age of 55 when compared to the national labour market (almost 30 percent in total). Nearly half of all security guards are over the age of 55. Of particular interest, 43% of all home support workers are over the age of 55 – 2000 of them in total – just as we are about to hit a wave of need. Who’s going to be there to change your bedpan?
Of the 500 4-Digit NOC occupations, New Brunswick is younger – by this measure – in less than 10. 56% of early childhood educators are under the age of 35 – 41% more than the share in the national labour market. Interestingly insurance and financial sales occupations is very young occupational group (although the astute among you will note this is a 3-digit NOC but because the rest will not we won’t dig any deeper). The IT industry tends to be a very young industry – compared to the national labour force there are 14% more young people in technical IT occupations.
