Number Of Oilsands Jobs To Jump By 70 Per Cent In Next Decade, Report Suggests

05 Apr 2013

New industry projections suggest Alberta’s oilsands will see a 70 per cent increase in employment over the next 10 years.

In its annual labour demand outlook released Thursday, the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada states there will be 31,850 job openings in the oilsands between 2012 and 2022. Half of these will be new jobs created as a result of industry expansion, while the remainder will be due to normal turnover and retirements.

The report states that between 2011 and 2012 alone, the oilsands sector added 2,100 new jobs.

Executive director Cheryl Knight said the latest analysis foresees oilsands employment growth occurring even more rapidly than the Petroleum Human Resources Council predicted last year. She said to address ongoing concerns about labour and skills shortages, the industry will need to look outside Western Canada for talent.

“Unemployment rates right now are different in the West than they are in the East,” Knight said. “We now have opportunities to hire people from Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick that we didn’t have when the unemployment rates were more similar across the country. We need to develop that, and we need to get better at providing people information about jobs, about moving, about training, and about what the opportunities are in the oilsands.”

One of the barriers right now to recruiting in Eastern Canada, Knight said, is public perception of the oilsands.

“The ‘energy literacy’ issue is quite critical,” she said. “We haven’t done a good enough job of conveying the importance of the industry and getting better participation in the industry from across Canada.”

While improvements in immigration regulations and the government’s temporary foreign worker program have been welcomed by industry, Knight said, recruiting from Eastern Canada is easier and cheaper. It also looks better in the eyes of the public, who want to see lucrative oilsands jobs go to Canadians.

Murray Fuerst, director of human resources at Athabasca Oil Corp., said his company hired 80 people in 2012 — all from the regional Calgary market. But the company, founded in 2006 with a current head count of 350 employees, will be looking to hire approximately 60 more in 2013. Fuerst said as Athabasca Oil Corp. continues to grow, it will have to intensify its recruitment efforts.

“Down the road, if we need to go outside of the province because of competition for talent, that’s absolutely something we’re looking at as well,” he said, adding that effectively telling the industry’s story will be a vital part of the process.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council labour market report identifies power engineers as the occupation most in demand among oilsands employers, predicting they will make up about 25 per cent of projected hiring requirements for both in situ and upgrading operations.

Neera Arora — associate dean at SAIT’s MacPhail School of Energy — said in response to industry demand, SAIT has committed to doubling the size of its power engineering program, going from a cohort of 64 students at the start of 2012 to 128 by the end of May 2014.

She said students have obviously gotten the message about opportunities in the oilsands.

“The power engineering program, for the last two years, has easily seen maximum demand,” Arora said. “If I have an intake of 64 students, I always have double that number of qualified applicants that are sitting there waiting.”

Other occupations expected to be in demand include heavy equipment operators, heavy-duty equipment managers, facility operation and maintenance managers, and engineering managers.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council report also states that for every direct oilsands job created, 10 spinoff jobs — in construction, oil and gas services, and the supply chain — follow.

Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/energy-resources/Number+oilsands+jobs+jump+cent+next+decade/8197271/story.html?__lsa=6bfb-74dd