A shift in Canada’s oil sands sector from growth and expansion to improving the reliability and performance of existing operations will have long-term impacts on the sector’s workforce requirements, according to PetroLMI’s latest labour demand outlook report.

The report, Oil Sands Construction, Maintenance and Operations Labour Demand Outlook to 2020, provides insight into the impact of 2015 spending and production forecasts on longer-term hiring requirements in the oil sands sector.

Some key findings:

• By 2020, the sector will experience a decrease in demand for about 10,305 on-site construction workers but generate 5,170 operations and 4,700 ongoing maintenance jobs.
• At peak construction, the sector will still require approximately 38,000 construction workers annually to maintain operations and could hire up to 9,500 operations positions, assuming historical retiring patterns continue.
• The oil sands sector is expected to achieve significant productivity gains over the next few years as cost reductions occur at the same time that production increases.

Oil Sands Construction, Maintenance and Operations Labour Demand Outlook to 2020 is one of a series of employment outlooks to be released by PetroLMI in early 2016. Other reports will include labour market insight into the exploration and production (E&P) sector, oil and gas services, pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Each of Canada’s oil and gas industry sectors is being impacted differently by the current economic environment. If additional changes are made to capital spending or production forecasts, PetroLMI will explore providing an update to this report later in 2016.