With recent news suggesting an economic slowdown within the next two years, I felt it fitting to speak about Mississauga’s recent economic performance and sustainability in the long run.
Mississauga has a compelling growth story. Our economy is strong, showing growth in business and employment, key sectors and small business.
The City’s ability to attract talent from surrounding regions has proven to be a critical component of our economic competitiveness and success. Over the past three years, despite Mississauga’s population growth of 1.7%, the total number of businesses with employees in Mississauga increased by 5.7% and total employment grew by 4.2%. This demonstrates how critical our labour imports are in supporting our city’s business and employment growth.
Mississauga is home to a number of diverse sector concentrations that are unique within Canada, including life sciences, aerospace, food & beverage, financial services, information technology, automotive and cleantech. Not only are these sectors areas of global competitiveness, they are also high value drivers of our economy. We estimate, that our key sectors account for over 28% of total employment, but over 40% of our total economic output.
By taking a sector based approach we are gardening the industries that we have and ensuring that we have the right support systems are in place in order to build strong, globally competitive industry clusters. We know that business investment decisions are made principally around having access to the right talent. The Economic Development Office (EDO) is in a unique position to link business needs with the broader workforce development ecosystem. An example of an initiative to address workforce needs is MHICA’s Structural Airplane Apprenticeship Program, which provides youth with a training program and apprenticeship with opportunities for full-time employment.
Mississauga’s economic portfolio boasts over 1400 multi-national firms, but is also home to many small businesses which have a huge impact on our economic growth. Over one in ten – of Mississauga residents have identified themselves as self-employed.
Entrepreneurship is a career path many young people and newcomers to Canada pursue, both of which are population groups with a high prevalence in Mississauga. Therefore it is critical for EDO to continue to help local small businesses and entrepreneurs grow and contribute to our economic growth and vitality.
Mississauga has a compelling business story about its innovation, growth and prosperity. Notwithstanding any future economic uncertainty, the EDO will continue to monitor our economy, challenge status quo, by maintaining close relationships with our business community, conducting research and analysis of our key sectors to ensure that we are providing the right services, infrastructure and programs to support our economy.
Mississauga’s future is truly “UNLIMITED.”
