School of Urban and Regional Planning

What is the situation for planning students?

Job opportunities remain strong for planning graduates. Recent surveys of university graduates find graduates of our program almost all employed one year after graduation.

Salaries

Starting salaries begin around $40 - 50,000 and rise--with the largest ultimate salaries probably in the real-estate development side of the field.

Our own research suggests that a high proportion of alumni of the School work in planning, land development, general municipal government or the non-profit sector. While the skills and knowledge obtained is transferable to other industries, the vast majority stay in the field or in a closely-related field.

Recent Trends

Fifty percent of grads tend to be employed in the private sector (consulting and law firms, real estate firms, retail and service firms). Almost as many are employed in the public sector (cities, towns, and regions, provinces
and territories, and the federal government) combined with the voluntary sector (industry associations, social agencies, non-profit housing groups, and community centres).

Range of Opportunities

Some of the jobs held by some of our grads that you might not think of:

- Working on cases before the Ontario Municipal Board, the tribunal that is usually the last resort in land-use controversies as a planner employed by a municipal law firm or working as a staff planner at the Board.

- Working on locating and opening retail facilities for a fast food firm like Tim Horton's, McDonalds, or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Working for a consulting firm which designs, gets approval for, and manages the leasing of new retail complexes.

- Working on the staff of United Way of Greater Toronto providing research background for social planning, fund-raising, and support for social agencies.

- Working on siting and getting permission to build telecommunications facilities such as cell phone towers and utility facilities such as hydro transmission lines

- Working on one side or the other of planning controversies such as: extending the Highway 404 corridor in York Region, building the Red Hill Creek Expressway in Hamilton, and burying the Gardiner Expressway in Downtown Toronto.

- Developing communities for seniors that incorporate a variety of housing options along with social programs.

- Developing, testing, and evaluating new ways to help low income Canadians save money to go back to school, to save money first month's rent on a better apartment, or to buy a house.

- Planning the development of the land and facilities at airports managed by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

- Helping cities in many provinces plan, market, and manage their public transit systems through work at a major engineering and planning consulting firm.

- After working years for a municipality or a large firm, opening a small consulting practice in partnership form, which works with other small consulting groups through networking and telecommunications links.

International Opportunities

While many alumni are employed in Ontario, they also work in every province, across the U.S., and in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Planners qualify for the so-called "NAFTA Visa" allowing even recent graduates to qualify to work for a U.S. employer. Students who hold citizenship in Europe or elsewhere in the world find that their undergraduate planning education serves well in different settings.

Current Job Opportunities

• Junior Research Associate (Ryerson University) [PDF]
• Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance (Job/Internship opportunities)