—the auto sector which is concentrated in Ontario, was greatly weakened. Quebec was seen as being less affected by the recession, and the value of the manufacturing sector in the economy still remained a little higher.
That said, Quebec has its own challenges, as we saw recently in the aerospace industry. At this point, if we look at the automation levels in place, we can see that the number of jobs will be moved from production lines to other added values. For instance, 3D printing is leading to increased demand for 3D designers. Product design is changing the value of it. This way, the former belief that, for example, half of manufacturing employees must work on the production line is no longer representative of the sector. If you go to Bombardier Aerospace today, you'll see that there are many more designers than employees assigned to the production line.
These days, the value of many products has changed, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. We were talking earlier about food processing. It is very good that this sector is the largest manufacturing employer in Canada, but the fact remains that it is one of the least automated sectors. This is why it has peaked. If the businesses in this sector want to grow, they will have to automate. Food processing companies tend to be much smaller and less able to export because they don't have the capacity to serve larger markets.