Has Canada become a “postindustrial” society?
Industrial society is a society that is driven by mass production using complex machines and technology to produce finish goods. Since majority of the work is automated; the numbers of factory workers are decreased in this economy while employment in the service sector increases. The high level of productivity encourages population growth in cities and urban areas providing higher living standards. In an industrial society, people are fairly well educated and generally their education and training is related to their occupation.
Postindustrial society is a step further ahead in which work is mainly based on digital technology and computers. There is an increased interest in the service sector as majority of the citizens are employed by the service sector as well as the service industry contributes more to the economy compare to the manufacturing sector. Industrial production is moved abroad to countries and regions where labour costs are lower and other government policies are relaxed.
In Canada, work has changed tremendously. Like many other developed countries, Canada started off as an agricultural economy then shifted to a manufacturing based economy, and then to a service based economy. According to Stats Canada, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry employing about three quarters of Canadians and accounting for 78% of GDP in 2012. On the other hand, Canada also has a fairly large manufacturing industry which is crucial to the Canadian economy. In 2012, the manufacturing sector within the goods producing industries contributed a total of 22% to the GDP. Important factor to note here is that the service sector is based on six broad groups: distributive services; business services; education, health and welfare sector; public administration; retail trade and other consumer services. However, manufacturing industry only consists of two groups which are primary and secondary sectors. Primary sector is based on goods produced from natural resources and secondary sector is based on construction and production of tangible product. Today, Canada remains an industrial society in which manufacturing industry continues to make a major contribution to the overall economy. In other words, Canada has not become a post-industrial, de-industrialized society.
Upon reviewing the percentage share of annual GDP in 2012, real estate; rental and leasing from...
