Ontario’s manufacturing sector is hiring. More than hiring—it’s competing, often losing ground to tight labour markets, aging workforces, and sectors it never used to consider rivals. For HR leaders in manufacturing, 2026 isn’t just another planning cycle. It’s a year where the pressure to get compensation right has never been higher, and the cost of getting it wrong (in turnover, delays, and missed production targets) has never been more visible.
When we compared our data from November 2024 to November 2025, one of the most significant swings was in compensation of skilled trades — particularly apprentice positions. Wage increases for many skilled trade positions were notably higher than what we typically see from one year to the next, highlighting how strongly employers are competing to retain the talent they have while attracting the next generation of skilled trades.
So which roles are creating the most urgent hiring pressure right now? And what does paying competitively actually look like across Ontario’s regions? Here’s what the data—and the market—are telling us.
Why 2026 is a Pivotal Year for Ontario Manufacturing Hiring
A few forces have converged to make the current labour market particularly challenging for manufacturers:
- Baby Boomer retirements are accelerating across the skilled trades, creating vacancies that apprenticeship pipelines simply aren’t filling fast enough.
- Reshoring and near-shoring trends—accelerated by post-COVID supply chain disruptions—are bringing more production back to Ontario, increasing demand for plant-level talent at the same time supply is shrinking.
- The EV and battery manufacturing boom is reshaping the automotive corridor. Major projects in Windsor, Alliston, and the Greater Toronto Area are competing for the same pool of industrial electricians, millwrights, and production supervisors that every other manufacturer needs.
Apprenticeship pipelines are expanding, but capacity constraints, certification timelines, and limited employer sponsorship mean new journeypersons are still entering the market at a slower rate than retirements are happening.
The result: this isn’t a cyclical blip. The talent pressure Ontario manufacturers are feeling is structural, and the compensation strategies that worked five years ago may no longer be sufficient to attract and retain the people your operation depends on.
“The talent pressure Ontario manufacturers are feeling is structural, and the compensation strategies that worked five years ago may no longer be sufficient.”
The Roles Every Ontario Manufacturer is Fighting Over
These are the positions generating the most competition — and the most wage pressure — in Ontario manufacturing right now.
CNC Operators & Machinists
Precision manufacturing has rebounded strongly, and automation has raised the bar: employers increasingly need CNC operators who can program and troubleshoot equipment, not just run it. That skills upgrade has narrowed the qualified candidate pool considerably, pushing wages upward—particularly for operators with multi-axis and CAM software experience.
Millwrights (Industrial Mechanics)
Consistently rated one of the most critically short trades across Canada, millwrights are in demand everywhere from food processing to auto parts to pulp and paper. The combination of a long apprenticeship pipeline (four to five years) and a workforce that skews older means the shortage will likely deepen before it improves. If your maintenance team is already stretched, you’re not alone.
Electricians (Industrial)
The electrification of manufacturing facilities—from panel upgrades to EV charging infrastructure to automation integration—has driven demand for industrial electricians well beyond historical norms. This is one of the roles where Ontario employers are reporting the most difficulty filling positions at their existing pay rates.
Production Supervisors & Line Leads
This is the shortage that doesn’t always show up in trades data, but HR leaders know it well. Experienced floor leadership is harder to grow than technical skills, and the pipeline of people ready to step from operator to supervisor roles has thinned. Competitive wages alone won’t solve it—career pathing, recognition, and benefits play a disproportionate role in retention here.
Welders & Fabricators
A persistent shortage nationally, demand for welders is spiking particularly in structural steel, heavy equipment, and automotive sectors. Employers in Windsor and Hamilton are reporting that qualified welders are fielding multiple competing offers within days of becoming available.
Maintenance Technicians (Multi-Skilled)
The preference for multi-trade maintenance technicians—who can span mechanical, electrical, and PLC work—has grown significantly across food processing and auto parts manufacturing. These generalists command a premium, and their scarcity is pushing employers to consider total compensation packages more creatively.
Robotics & Automation Technicians and PLC Programmers
Many Ontario manufacturers have invested heavily in automation to remain competitive and address labour shortages. Robots, automated assembly lines, machine vision systems, and advanced packaging equipment are becoming standard in many plants. Hiring automation positions is difficult however because the supply pipeline for these roles is relatively small. Unlike traditional maintenance trades, these roles sit at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, and software systems, making them harder to fill.
Worth mentioning: Warehouse & Logistics Supervisors and Health & Safety Coordinators are also seeing strong demand that spills over from manufacturing growth, and both are competing with non-manufacturing employers for the same people.
Skills Shortages are Pushing Wages — Faster than Many HR Leaders Realize
Here’s what makes this moment particularly tricky: manufacturers aren’t just competing with each other anymore. Amazon distribution centres, large construction projects, and even the gig economy are all bidding for the same workers. The competition has broadened, and wages are moving faster in some pockets of the market than annual compensation reviews tend to capture.
One pattern that’s emerged is what might be called the “quiet raise”—employers adjusting wages informally, outside of their formal pay band structures, to close specific gaps. This creates internal equity problems over time, and it tends to surface at the worst possible moment: when an employee discovers that a newer hire is earning more for the same role.
Geography matters enormously here. Windsor’s EV boom is creating wage pressures that don’t exist in the same way in Sudbury or Barrie. Kitchener-Waterloo’s tech-adjacent manufacturing environment competes with software firms for some technical roles. Hamilton’s steel corridor has its own dynamics. Applying a provincial or national benchmark to a local hiring challenge can lead to decisions that look defensible on paper but fall flat in reality.
“Applying a national benchmark to a local hiring challenge can lead to decisions that look defensible on paper but fall flat in reality.”
Why Ontario-Specific Data Gives HR Leaders a Real Edge
This is where having the right data changes the conversation. National compensation surveys have their place, but they tend to obscure the regional dynamics that actually drive your hiring outcomes. What’s true in Calgary or Vancouver—or even in Toronto—doesn’t necessarily translate to what you’ll need to offer to compete in your specific market.
COIRI has been gathering compensation and benefits data from Ontario employers for decades. The participants in our annual surveys are your peers—manufacturers of comparable size, in comparable industries, in comparable regions—which means the benchmarks aren’t theoretical. They reflect what real employers in Ontario are actually paying, right now, for the roles you’re trying to fill.
And it’s not just wages. In a tight labour market, benefits have become a differentiator in ways they haven’t been for a generation. Extended health coverage, retirement contributions, flexible scheduling, and paid leave policies are all factors that candidates are actively weighing—especially for roles in demand. COIRI’s survey data covers both compensation and benefits, giving HR leaders a complete picture of what competitive looks like for hourly, salary, and executive positions.
What to Do Right Now
If you’re an HR leader in Ontario manufacturing, here are four concrete actions worth prioritizing as you head into the year:
- Audit your pay bands against current market data—especially for the high-demand roles listed above. If it’s been more than twelve months since you benchmarked, your data may already be stale.
- Look for internal equity gaps before your employees do. If informal adjustments have been made outside your formal structure, a systematic review now is much less costly than the turnover it might otherwise cause.
- Review your total compensation package, not just wages. In a competitive market, benefits, retirement contributions, and non-monetary factors often make the difference between a candidate accepting your offer or a competitor’s.
- Build proactive relationships with local colleges and apprenticeship programs. The employers winning the talent war in five years are building those pipelines now.
- Waiting for exit interview data to confirm you’re below market is an expensive strategy. The better approach is to know where you stand before the problem shows up on your shop floor.
See Where you Stand with Clarity
COIRI’s Clarity platform puts Ontario-specific compensation and benefits survey data in your hands—on demand, in an interactive format that makes it easy to find exactly what you need, when you need it. No waiting for a printed report. No more trying to interpret data that wasn’t designed for your market.
Clarity offers a free membership tier that lets you explore the platform and see the kind of intelligence available before making any commitment. If you’re responsible for keeping your organization’s compensation practices competitive in Ontario manufacturing, it’s worth ten minutes of your time.