Report: Economic forecast for city looks good
Conference Board of Canada says Oshawa's future looking good, despite upcoming job losses at GM
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
The Conference Board of Canada says things in Oshawa are on the up and up.
According to the recently-released Metropolitan Outlook 2: Economic Insights Into 15 Canadian Metropolitan Economies, Oshawa’s future is looking bright.
There are some dark clouds, however, as the report calls on manufacturing output to slow due to job losses at General Motors’ Oshawa production facility as this sector moves towards the lower hydro rates and lower pay of the U.S. and Mexico. The report projects that the manufacturing sector will see a loss of 7.4 per cent in 2015 as a result.
This is offset, however, by projected gains in other fields such as construction (5.7 per cent in 2015 and 2.2 per cent in 2016) and services (2.5 per cent in 2015 and 2.0 per cent in 2016).
“Oshawa’s outlook continues to be positive, despite issues in the automotive industry, underscoring the growing diversity of the local economy,” the report reads. “Indeed, real GDP is forecast to expand by 2.6 per cent in 2015, lifting employment by 1.2 per cent.”
Looking further into the future, the report projects that the personal services industry will see the largest boost in employment numbers, set to go up by 3.7 per cent between 2016 and 2019. In total, the report projects there will be approximately 15,000 more jobs in the city by 2019.