Graduates · Ontario · 2021 Census
What can you do with a biology degree?
What graduates actually work as, from Statistics Canada, beside what Job Bank says about each job: openings, pay, and what it takes.
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What can you do with a biology degree in Ontario?
In the 2021 Census, the most common jobs among employed Ontarians aged 25 to 34 with a bachelor's degree or higher in biology were post-secondary teaching and research assistants (10.1%), biologists and related scientists (7.2%) and retail salespersons and visual merchandisers (2.1%). The 12 most common jobs cover only 34.4% of graduates, so biology leads to a wide spread of work rather than one career.
What graduates really do
What jobs do biology graduates in Ontario actually have?
Ontario is published for the biological and biomedical sciences group, so the lead table is Ontario graduates aged 25 to 34.
| Job | Share of graduates | People | Job Bank outlook | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Post-secondary teaching and research assistants | 10.1% | 3,230 | No Job Bank outlook | — |
| Biologists and related scientists | 7.2% | 2,325 | Very limited | $40.00/hr |
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 2.1% | 675 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| University professors and lecturers | 2% | 635 | Moderate | $64.10/hr |
| Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nursesOur guide | 1.9% | 615 | Very good | $42.00/hr |
| Chemists | 1.8% | 565 | Moderate | $39.49/hr |
| Medical laboratory technologistsOur guide | 1.8% | 565 | Good | $42.00/hr |
| Professional occupations in business management consulting | 1.7% | 530 | Moderate | $44.94/hr |
| Administrative officers | 1.5% | 495 | Limited | $29.38/hr |
| Health policy researchers, consultants and program officers | 1.5% | 485 | Moderate | $44.62/hr |
| Professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relationsOur guide | 1.4% | 455 | Limited | $37.02/hr |
| Biological technologists and technicians | 1.4% | 445 | Very limited | $30.00/hr |
How does it look for other groups?
These are different groups of people, shown separately on purpose: a different place, age group or level of education. Do not read them as one comparison.
| Job | Share of graduates | People | Job Bank outlook | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biologists and related scientists | 6.3% | 3,640 | Very limited | $40.00/hr |
| Post-secondary teaching and research assistants | 3.5% | 2,005 | No Job Bank outlook | — |
| Secondary school teachersOur guide | 2.8% | 1,630 | Moderate | $48.08/hr |
| Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nursesOur guide | 2.4% | 1,390 | Very good | $42.00/hr |
| Medical laboratory technologistsOur guide | 2.2% | 1,250 | Good | $42.00/hr |
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 2.1% | 1,190 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Retail and wholesale trade managers | 1.8% | 1,045 | Moderate | $43.27/hr |
| Administrative officers | 1.8% | 1,030 | Limited | $29.38/hr |
| Elementary school and kindergarten teachers | 1.8% | 1,030 | Moderate | $46.15/hr |
| Natural and applied science policy researchers, consultants and program officers | 1.6% | 905 | No Job Bank outlook | — |
| Administrative assistants | 1.3% | 730 | Moderate | $26.67/hr |
| Biological technologists and technicians | 1.2% | 710 | Very limited | $30.00/hr |
Do those jobs have openings?
Which of those jobs are hiring?
2 of the 12 most common jobs have a good or very good Ontario outlook from Job Bank for 2025 to 2027, together covering 3.7% of these graduates. Outlook is a province-wide forecast of openings against job seekers, not a promise for any one town or employer.
- Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses: Job Bank outlook very good, 1.9% of these graduates.
- Medical laboratory technologists: Job Bank outlook good, 1.8% of these graduates.
When the degree is not enough
What does the degree not lead to on its own?
A biology degree is science training, not a licence. Health professions such as pharmacist, physiotherapist or physician each have their own program, exams and regulator after or instead of a general science degree.
Laboratory, field and research work usually asks for the lab skills you built in the degree, and employers often look for a specialized college program or graduate study on top of it.
Routes that need more than the degree
Become an Ontario certified teacher
The Ontario College of Teachers describes a consecutive program as a four-semester program leading to a Bachelor of Education, open to students who have completed an undergraduate degree. Its becoming-a-teacher page lists a postsecondary degree of at least three years plus a four-semester teacher education program, then an application to the College for certification. Ontario College of Teachers: teacher education program providersAdd a college graduate certificate
Ontario Colleges states that graduate certificates require a university degree or a college certificate or diploma for admission, and build on knowledge and experience from earlier postsecondary study. Check each program on ontariocolleges.ca for its own entry requirements. Ontario Colleges: program types
Jobs to look at
Careers worth a closer look
Full guides: what the work is really like, who hates it, what it pays, and the route in.
- Medical laboratory technologistTesting blood, tissue and other samples so a doctor can read the result, and being the person who notices when a result looks wrong.Career guide
- PharmacistChecking that a medication is right for a specific person, catching the interaction before it hurts somebody, and explaining it so they will actually take it.Career guide
- PhysiotherapistWorking out why somebody cannot move the way they used to and building, with them, a plan that gets them moving again.Career guide
- Veterinary technicianThe person who does much of the hands-on clinical work in a vet clinic: nursing, lab work, anaesthesia monitoring, X-rays and calming the animal down.Career guide
- Conservation officerAn armed peace officer who enforces fish, wildlife and natural resource laws in the field, and is very hard to become.Career guide
- Agricultural representativeAdvising farmers on what to grow, feed or change, using soil, crop, animal and money data, and then driving to a farm to see for yourself.Career guide
Read this before you rely on it
What the numbers do not show
- The Census is from 2021. Jobs and hiring have moved since. Job Bank's outlook is current to 2025 to 2027.
- It counts employed people and what they do, not whether they wanted that job or use their degree in it. A graduate working as a retail supervisor is counted in the data exactly like one working in their field.
- It is a 25% sample, and Statistics Canada rounds every count to a multiple of five. Small groups are noisy.
- For Ontario the Census publishes bachelor's degree or higher together, so those tables include master's and doctoral graduates.
- Each person is counted once, by their highest credential. A person who finished a diploma and then a degree appears under the degree, not the diploma.
- The 12 jobs shown are the most common, not all of them. The rest of the graduates are spread across hundreds of other jobs.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, tables 98-10-0447-01 and 98-10-0403-01; Job Bank (Employment and Social Development Canada) Ontario outlooks and wages, linked on each job. We join them by occupation code and change neither.
Finished the degree and stuck?
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