The nature of jobs and employment in the Niagara region will see change over the next decade as more technological advancements replace workers in some fields.
But one aspect of expected changes is the return of manufacturing, said Don Cyr, professor of finance in the Brock University Goodman School of Business.
“Deglobalization is starting to take place, and companies are re-shoring their operations,” he said.
Deglobalization is the reversal of globalization whereby businesses and organizations developed international power and operated on an international level.
Cyr said globalization occurred during a period of growing production in places such as China. That’s waning because of rising wages in other parts of the world.
“What you’re seeing for the Niagara region depends a lot on the United States with increased investment in terms of production,” he said.
“We saw manufacturing leave over a 30-year period and we’re going to see it coming back.”
He said one issue Canada will face over the next decade is a lack of people to take up jobs as many retire.
“We will be experiencing a demographic shift over the next few years,” Cyr said.
“It’s estimated that this coming year is the year where the greatest number of baby boomers turn 65 years old and will be retiring and we don’t have a population in terms of zoomers (Gen Z) that fills that.”
Cyr said younger generations moving into the working world will lead to an increase of at-home working, which the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in on a wider scale.
“Another thing that’s going to facilitate that over the next 10 years is the growth of data analytics, the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and, to some extent, robotics,” he said.
“We will see that transforming the workplace to some extent, and people want a greater life balance in their work.”
The three pillars of Niagara’s economic development — agriculture, manufacturing, tourism — tend to overlap and, therefore, will have a larger impact in the area when it comes to work and employment, said Chris Fullerton, professor of geography and tourism studies at Brock.
“They’re not always entirely separate sectors. There’s a lot of connection, in terms of the wine industry or the craft brewing industry, where there’s a direct connection to the Niagara agricultural production that feeds into the wine making, the beer making and so on, and then that leads to tourism opportunities,” he said.
Fullerton said this will lead to the need for automation, AI and robotics, because as the number of workers entering the marketplace slows, farmers will need to add these technologies to keep up with demand.
“It sometimes can replace human labour, but also sometimes lead to the need for people with more specialized skills,” he said.
“The number of farms in Niagara is going down, but production is nonetheless going up, so, in the agricultural sector, it’s becoming a lot more efficient as a production sector.”
Cyr said over the next decade more companies could attempt a hybridized model increasing production of workers as automation can be expensive.
“Companies are investing more in robotics, artificial intelligence as a way of changing the work people do, making them more productive,” he said.
“In addition to the nature of work, changing robotics is expensive for many companies, and it is an expensive proposition, but over a 10-year period, that can change.”
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