As of 2004 the furniture industry in Canada employed some 92,810 persons, more than 44% higher than 10 years ago, but almost unchanged since the beginning of this century. The improvement from its 1993 recession low of just 59,559 is truly remarkable. In other words furniture industry employment has exhibited much resiliency, especially considering the impacts the industry faced since the early 1980s from Canada?s free trade agreement. The more recent employment decline is a reflection of the industry?s slowdown due to the strengthening Canadian dollar and more Asian competition.
The rise and subsequent fall affected predominantly production workers. Indeed, salaried/commissioned employees continued to rise during the past three years.
Interestingly, the number of firms in the furniture industry declined. In 1995 there were approximately 2500 furniture establishments in Canada, but a decade later it had fallen almost one-third to about 1700. Medium sized firms shrank relatively more than either large or small firms. This suggests that you either have to be big to compete internationally, or small and flexible to carve out a niche and survive.