Statistics Canada’s latest profile of mobility, earnings and pathway indicators for journeypersons in Canada shows that wages remain strong, and interprovincial mobility is key to success for some.

In 2017, the latest year for which data was available, 7.1 percent of journeypersons had moved to another province to live and work, or were working in a province that was not their province of residence one year after their obtained their certification. Inter-provincial mobility was especially pronounced in Western Canada, where such trades as heavy duty equipment technicians, steamfitters-pipefitters and industrial mechanics were particularly well paid.

In 2016, 36,000 apprentices completed their training and became newly certified journeypersons. One year after certification, 3.7 percent or 1,330 of these journeypersons moved to another province.

In addition, there were 1,240 (or 3.4 percent of the population) newly certified journeypersons who worked in one province or territory, while continuing to reside in another province or territory one year after certification.

Economic conditions in Western Canada made those provinces especially attractive to transient journeypersons. From 2009 to 2014, the number of journeypersons living in Alberta, after being certified elsewhere, increased by 70 percent (from 300 to 510), making that province the most common destination for migrant journeypersons in 2014.

Additionally, almost two-thirds (62 percent) of Canada's shadow population of journeypersons—those who work in one province, but reside in another—was employed in Alberta in 2014. From 2009 to 2014, the number of these journeypersons employed in Alberta almost tripled, from 460 to 1240. Most of resided in British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Those journeypersons most likely to move provinces following certification were steamfitters-pipefitters (12.8 percent), welders (8.4 percent) and heavy duty equipment operators (7 percent). The Red Seal program gives those trades the ability to have their skills recognized across the country. Those journeypersons in trades not designated as Red Seal (1.4 percent) had the lowest interprovincial migration rates.

Income statistics for journeypersons shows that, five years after certification, some earned more than university undergraduates.

Among the top 10 Red Seal trades, heavy duty equipment technicians ($99,300), steamfitters-pipefitters ($99,100), industrial mechanics (millwrights) ($92,800) and construction electricians ($76,700) had the highest median incomes. All had higher median incomes five years after certification than those with degrees in architecture, engineering and related technologies ($73,700)—the undergraduate degrees with the highest median incomes.

Finally, Statistics Canada shows that continuation and discontinuation rates varied strongly among programs. Of the 38,700 new apprentices who registered in one of the top 10 Red Seal trades in 2011, 42 percent were certified by 2017. This means that certification took place within six years of registration for a four-year apprenticeship program. Industrial mechanics (millwrights) (50.3 percent) and construction electricians (49.9 percent) had the highest certification rates, while cooks (32.1 percent) and carpenters (31.4 percent) had the lowest.

The tendency for apprentices to discontinue their programs within this period also varied by trade. Cooks (51.4 percent) and carpenters (50.1 percent) had the highest discontinuation rates, while hairstylists (14.5 percent) and construction electricians (30.8 percent) had the lowest. Since cooks and carpenters in particular do not require certification to work unsupervised in their trades, it is entirely possible those apprentices continued to work in their professions without completing their apprenticeship training.