When describing employment opportunities in the pest management industry, it may help to take a more modern, skills-based approach.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, old-fashioned labels like “blue collar” and “white collar” are no longer relevant. In addition, factors like educational attainment or work experience are only proxies for assessing the skills of workers. As such, a more sophisticated way to talk about employment opportunities is needed.
In a new report titled Beyond Blue and White Collar, the organization identifies eight new job groupings based on underlying skill similarities:
- STEM professionals – Top skills for this cluster are programming, technology design, science, mathematics and operations analysis. This group tends to earn the highest salaries. Occupations include chemistry, computer network and engineering roles.
- Knowledge workers – The largest cluster by number of professionals, this group tends to have the highest educational requirements. Skills include judgment and decision-making, social perceptiveness, monitoring, complex problem solving and active listening. Occupations include analysts, researchers, academics, pharmacists and business-related positions.
- Personal services – This group excels at negotiation, speaking, persuasion, writing and management of financial resources. Occupations include accounting, data entry clerks, dispatchers, legal administrative assistants and retail salespersons. They generally are lower-paying jobs.
- Supervisors – Supervisors, such as of petroleum, gas, chemical processing and utilities, as well as coaches, inspectors and medical sonographers fit this group. Key skills are service orientation, social perceptiveness, learning strategies, instructing and speaking. Supervisors generally command higher salaries.
- Technical trades – Pest management specialists may fall into this grouping. The top skills are social and emotional skills, including service orientation, active listening, speaking, writing and reading comprehension. Although it has lower educational requirements to entry, this is one of the higher-paying clusters. Some occupational examples cited by the Conference Board are boilermakers, carpenters, electricians and water treatment plant operators.
- Non-technical trades – Jobs in this grouping include bakers, bartenders, hair stylists and barbers, photographers and printing press operators. Top skills for this lower-paying cluster are operation and control, equipment maintenance, repairing, equipment selection and troubleshooting.
- Builders – This cluster includes bricklayers, concrete finishers, longshore workers, roofers and truck drivers. Top skills are repairing, installation, equipment maintenance, troubleshooting and equipment selection. While some jobs in this group are specialized and require expertise, in general, they tend to be lower paid.
- Doers – Jobs in this lowest-paying cluster include cashiers, food and beverage servers, light-duty cleaners and people who do shipping and receiving, shelf stocking and order filling. Top skills are management of personnel resources, operation monitoring, operation and control, time management and quality control analysis.
In addition to assisting employers, these job groupings can provide valuable insights to job seekers, educators and public policy makers.
To learn how Canadian pest control companies are managing the tight labour market, read this article, which ran in the previous issue of PCT Canada.
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