Recruiting wont meet labour demand Employers must grow pool of workers: report David Howell, Edmonton Journal Published: 1:30 am Albertas expanding oilsands sector will need 98,000 workers in construction, operations and maintenance jobs by 2023, up from 73,000 this year, says a new labour forecast designed to help ensure those positions get filled. The report, released Wednesday, is billed as the first of its kind. It compiles data from the construction industry, the oilsands sector and the Alberta government to create detailed projections of labour demand in the oilsands over the next decade. It provides an opportunity to look at a more complete picture of the magnitude of the workforce and the issues and solutions around that total workforce, Carla Campbell-Ott, executive director of the Calgarybased Petroleum Human Resources Council, said in an interview. All industry employers, are, increasingly, wanting to do more enhanced workforce planning, and they need numbers to be able to do that. The 60-page report, which took eight months to compile, is titled the Oilsands Construction, Maintenance and Operations Labour Demand Outlook to 2023. It was produced by the Petroleum Human Resources Council with BuildForce Canada, the Construction Owners Association of Alberta and the provincial government. The reports authors say that examining construction and operations together allowed them to better investigate both the magnitude of the hiring challenges and the occupations and skills that are important for each sector. In Albertas tight labour market, a focus on recruiting and competing for skilled workers isnt enough to address demand, the report concludes. It says industry and government can benefit by growing the pool of qualified workers rather than simply competing for workers within and across companies. The report lauds existing efforts at boosting the workforce numbers of underrepresented groups including women, aboriginals, youth and former Armed Forces members. It calls for better workforce planning and more worker training and development. And it says while Canadians first should be the priority, temporary foreign workers are a solution for filling shorter-term jobs. The report is aimed at employers, industry associations, governments, educators, recruiters, career counsellors and jobseekers. Kyle Fawcett, Albertas labour minister, said it will be valuable to all those groups, starting with high-school students who are thinking about possible careers. What this has allowed us to do is bring together a number of industry participants to help get a more in-depth understanding of the current needs, Fawcett said. I think we are getting better at looking at these things and putting together the methodology that allows us to be more accurate in our projections and forecasts. The report says the oilsands sector will need 72,810 workers by the end of 2014 - 46,260 in construction, and 26,550 in operations. The forecast calls for total employment to be 98,330 by 2023 - 56,500 in construction and 41,880 in operations. The construction category includes off-site prefabrication and modular construction, on-site construction, and all types of maintenance, including turnarounds.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 18:13:07 +0000
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