40,000 new jobs in GTA residential construction market last year, half in renovations

If you are a busy renovator in the Greater Toronto Area, take a bow. Even if you are “just” a one- or two-person operation, you are in fact part of an absolutely huge economic engine. In a recent Toronto Star column, Bryan Tuckey, president and CEO of BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association) highlighted just how powerful the renovation sector has become in Canada’s most prosperous residential construction market.

Tuckey quotes stats from the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, based on Statistics Canada and CMHC data. Such as…

* 196,603 people were employed in new home building, renovations and repairs last year. This is a staggering 40,000 increase from 2014.

* $11.4 billion in wages were earned by residential construction personnel in the GTA last year. With these wages being spent – and the multiplier effect of that spending into other industries – an estimated $30-billion of business was created in the GTA by our industry.

* Half of that $30-billion in business-creation is attributable to the renovation sector alone.

Read Tuckey’s full article in the Toronto Star here.