Canada’s mining industry faces workers shortage of up to 127,000 — report
The average retiring worker takes with him 37 years of labour force experience, a loss the industry must offset, says the report. (Image from archives)
With commodity prices rebounding from their lowest in at least 25 years, miners are stepping up spending and considering the reactivation of projects placed in the back burner, but there is a new looming risk they don’t seem ready to deal with — their ability to access workers with the skills needed in an upswing.
That is the main conclusion of a recent report by Canada’s Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), which warns about the immediate consequences of the lack of recruitment over the past five years.
In that period, Canada’s mining industry endured an economic downturn that continued throughout 2015. Due to this trend, a number of mining operations faced the decision to keep their operations running, but in less than optimal conditions. Others, particularly in the oil sands sector, simply scaled back production or shut down their operations, laying off hundreds of workers.
As a consequence, mining employers face a cumulative hiring requirement of almost 86,000 workers under an industry contraction scenario, the report warns. The figure includes replacing about 49,000 workers over the next decade due to retirement.
“At an average 37 years per person of experience this is a significant experience gap, layered onto the complexity of those occupations that show a gap in supply, where experience cannot be replaced by education,” the report says.
The authors warn that if the mining industry does return to growth, employers could then face a cumulative hiring requirement of up to 127,000 workers.
Gap sensitivity index
Occupational shortages will be different depending on the specific sector and the type of jobs to be filled, says the report, which includes a “gap sensitivity index”. The metric indicates the degree to which mining employers are vulnerable to a change in the inflow of new workers in particular occupations, concluding that “technicians,” “engineers” and “managers” continue to be the most sensitive positions, even in an industry contraction scenario.
“During an economic downturn, a thin labour supply is less obvious and tends to be discounted, as workers are less in-demand,” says Ryan Montpellier, executive director, MiHR. “Over the long-term, industry will need to ensure that the talent pipeline is maintained, to avoid more serious labour market challenges when the market recovers– which it will inevitably do,” he notes.
The report warns that now, more than ever, Canada’s mining industry needs to be looking at its future labour market needs and putting in place collaborative strategies to ensure it has a robust, appropriately skilled supply of workers — both now and in the coming decade.
You can download the full report here.
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3 Comments
TheSkyIsNotFallingItWasABird
Boy. Where to start…
I guess I should read the full article. But I can’t be bothered. After 41 years in mining and oil, I think I’ll rant like the curmudgeon that I am based on the above summary. There is a lot to this but you’d get bored if I covered it all. So I’ll peck away at a couple of points.
The state of the “labour shortage” is largely a problem created by the industry itself combined with governments obsessed with regulation.
It’s not so much a case of finding “skilled workers”. It’s a case of the industry thinking that they will find their people wandering around and dropping by fully trained, extensively experienced and properly certified. The government over the years has likewise adopted an attitude that a piece of paper is required for any and every job that needs to be done, turning workers into specialists in a dynamic economy that sees technology and job functions change regularly, leaving the paper attached to workers outdated, no longer valid or useful or caught in the never ending re-certification squirrel cage. The focus turns workers into specialists in a world where specializations are changing all the time. It’s not skilled workers that are in short demand, it’s certified workers. There are a lot of smart men and women working ar home depot who simply need a chance to train at a mill or mine.
Other than grabbing kids fresh out of grade school into apprenticeship programs, companies do not, or possibly cannot because of certification regulations, train people to positions that truly do not require years of classroom and formal training. Taking people in and training them in-house as was done in the resource boom years can still have validity.
The dehumanization effects of FIFO over building towns (Kitsault, Pine Point, Tumbler Ridge, Logan Lake) where young families can grow also adds to it. Sure the money’s good. For many it blurs the fact that compressing family time into a week every few makes you suddenly old, looking back on a life of accumulated missed family events and disasters that can never be replaced by money.
It’s time companies and government realize that to attract and keep people, they need to step away from so much paper certification and realize that on the job training can fill an abundance of the shortage. And it’s time to fire all the MBAs of the 1980s and 90’s and appreciate that a balance sheet does not define a company. Providing training and advancement, security in commodity downturns and lifestyle compassion outweighs maximizing profit.
Zulugroove
Blah blah blah …..B.S ! Simply bullshit numbers by a federal agency to speak to allowing more foreign workers, immigration . Haven’t read so much crap with pretty graphics to make it look real! Honestly they think we’re stupid?? I guess so
trevormarr
OK I am ready to work, where are the Mining Jobs????