Positive five-year labour outlook for Canadian oil and gas industry

After losing more than 52,000 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs in 2015 and 2016, the oil and gas sector is poised for growth again.

PetroLMI is out with its five-year labour market outlook for Canada’s oil and gas industry. Of note, the job scene will never be like it once was.

Carol Howes, Vice President of Communications and PetroLMI, says there are 25 per cent fewer employees in the industry than there were in 2014.

“If the oil prices stay well above $50 [a barrel], we’re looking at about another 6,000 workers added this year and about another 11,000 workers between 2018 and 2021,” she said.

Some sectors are already seeing growth.

“The drilling activity has increased this first quarter substantially over a year ago so there’s more guys going back to work in the field,” said Howes, adding retirements will also play a role in hiring.

“Some of those, for instance the engineers and geophysicists who have worked in the industry for some time, they may be moving out of the industry and retiring so some of those occupations may open up,” explained Howes.

But, she doesn’t expect we’ll ever get back to the 2014 industry peak of 226,000 direct workers, meaning job gains over the next five years will only see net gains of 10 per cent to 30 per cent of what was lost over the last two years.

Another positive for skilled workers is that a shortage of their expertise is expected to continue over the next five years, meaning they will be in high demand.

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