Job prospects Early Childhood Educator (ECE) in Manitoba

Explore current and future job prospects for people working as an "early childhood educator (ECE)" in Manitoba or across Canada.

Job opportunities in Manitoba

The recent trends from the past 3 years were updated on July 25, 2025. The job outlooks over the next 3 years were updated on December 10, 2025.

Prospects over the next 3 years

The employment outlook will be Moderate for early childhood educators and assistants (NOC 42202) in Manitoba for the 2025-2027 period.

The following factors contributed to this outlook:

• Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
• Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
• There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.
• High employee turnover in this occupation could lead to additional employment opportunities.

• This occupation benefits from the province's expansion of new childcare facilities and its training, recruitment and retention strategy for workers as part of the 2023 federal-provincial agreement. 
• Entry wages continue to improve.
• Key trends for this occupation include social-emotional learning, early literacy, diversity, inclusion, and increased parent engagement.
• This occupation tends to have high employee turnover.

Here are some key facts about early childhood educators and assistants in Manitoba:

• Approximately 9,800 people work in this occupation.
• Early childhood educators and assistants mainly work in the following sectors:
  • Social assistance (NAICS 624): 91%
  • Elementary and secondary schools (NAICS 6111): 5%
• The distribution of full-time and part-time workers in this occupation is:
  • Full-time workers: 76% compared to 81% for all occupations
  • Part-time workers: 24% compared to 19% for all occupations
• 44% of early childhood educators and assistants work all year, while 56% work only part of the year, compared to 65% and 35% respectively among all occupations. Those who worked only part of the year did so for an average of 39 weeks compared to 43 weeks for all occupations.
• 10% of early childhood educators and assistants are self-employed compared to an average of 12% for all occupations.
• The gender distribution of people in this occupation is:
  • Men: 6% compared to 53% for all occupations
  • Women: 94% compared to 47% for all occupations
• The educational attainment of workers in this occupation is:
  • no high school diploma: 6% compared to 12% for all occupations
  • high school diploma or equivalent: 30% compared to 31% for all occupations
  • apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma: 7% compared to 12% for all occupations
  • college certificate or diploma or university certificate below bachelor's: 32% compared to 17% for all occupations
  • bachelor's degree: 18% compared to 20% for all occupations
  • university certificate, degree or diploma above bachelor level: 6% compared to 8% for all occupations

Breakdown by region

Explore job prospects in Manitoba by economic region.

Source Labour Market Information | Prospects Methodology

Labour market conditions over the next 10 years

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