A sweeping new report on the state of Ontario's grocery industry finds more traditional supermarket jobs are being overtaken by the hiring of warehouse, logistics and order fulfilment workers or "personal shoppers."

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen retailers dive deeper into e-commerce, and accelerate the use of online grocery ordering and delivery.

The report released Wednesday by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an independent economic policy institute based at Ryerson University, highlights changes in e-commerce and automation that are shaping the grocery industry across the country.

"COVID-19 restrictions and risks have dramatically accelerated Canadian demand for online grocery shopping," the report said, noting that e-commerce grocery sales have increased 700 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

Rather than a predicted decline in jobs, the 43-page report found that the rise of automation and online shopping is instead shifting the nature of grocery retail work.

Unlike traditional grocery jobs like cashiers, clerks and in-store shelf and produce stockers, which tend to focus on customer service, the report found new e-commerce jobs involve fulfilling online orders, packing groceries, preparing food and delivering orders.

While many of these positions remain in stores, they are also increasingly located at distribution centres and so-called dark stores, which operate exclusively to fulfil online orders.