Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts - MiHR

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Results from MiHR’s 2010 National Employer Survey showed that one third of respondents do not have any unionized employees. However, at most sites where organized labour is present, over half of the workers are union members. Of the employers with unionized employees, half reported that 51–75 per cent of their workforce is unionized, and over a quarter reported that more than 75 per cent of their workforce is unionized. Use of Contractors As unionization rates fall in the mining industry, the use of contractors is on the rise. MiHR’s employer survey showed that, on average, 13 per cent of respondents’ workforces are comprised of independent contractors. However, respondents also reported contracting out some activities more than others. For example, the majority of respondents contract out drilling and blasting, boring, and tunnelling activities. Education and training activities were also commonly contracted out, as were transportation, material-moving, and heavy equipment operators and mechanic activities. An Aging Workforce The two main factors behind Canada’s aging population are the nation’s low fertility rate and increasing life expectancy. In general, aging contributes to slower labour-force growth because participation rates for older age groups in the population are significantly lower than for younger groups. What is more, the Canadian labour force is aging in conjunction with the population demographics; there will be more older workers leaving the labour force over the next 10 years than younger workers available to replace them. According to a recent survey from the Conference Board of Canada, Canadian employers from a broad cross-section of regions and industry categories placed the aging workforce among their top priorities over the next five years. 16 The loss of experienced workers and corporate knowledge was a primary concern, as were gaps in management and leadership. Inexperienced, younger individuals without the depth of knowledge that comes from years of experience may get moved up the supervisory and management ladder before they are ready, which could be detrimental to the entire organization. Such acceleration also poses health and safety risks that are of concern to employers. 17 The mining industry clearly recognizes that mature workers play an essential role in transferring knowledge and skills to younger industry workers. Employers’ efforts to increase mature workers’ participation rates include: altering pension and retirement benefits to reward extra time on the job; enhancing working conditions (including hours and vacation allotments); and adding medical and other benefits to address the needs of the older workforce. Figure 10 shows that the largest age group in the mining industry is 45–54 years old, representing almost 30 per cent of the workforce. This is significantly higher than the 25 per cent proportion for this age group across all industries in Canada. Respondents to MiHR’s 2010 National Employer Survey indicated that, on average, more than half of their workers are aged 45 or older, with the highest average proportion aged 45 to 54 years. In most cases, around 25 per cent of the workers are less than 35 years of age, with less than five per cent aged 15–24. The youngest reported average ages were for technical occupations (39 years), and professional and physical scientists (41.6 years). Supervisors and foremen had the oldest average ages at 48 years. 16 Harnessing the Power: Recruiting, Engaging, and Retaining Mature Workers, The Conference Board of Canada, October 2008. 17 Many organizations have succession management programs in place to stream high-potential, younger workers for these roles. For more information, see the MiHR Mining for Diversity report and toolkit. 20 Mining Industry Workforce Information Network
Figure 10 Age Group Distribution in Canadian Mining Industry in 2006 35% 30% Mining Industry Canadian Labour Force 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 15 to 24 years 25 to 34 years 35 to 44 years 45 to 54 years 55 to 64 years Source: Mining Industry Human Resources Council; Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Retirement A number of factors are taken into account when a person decides to retire. Many workers consider such issues as savings; debt and other financial circumstances; health status; sense of attachment to work; family responsibilities; labour-market pressures; and retirement policies (government, labour, and organizational). Consequently, it is difficult to predict an individual’s expected retirement date. A reasonably conservative approach when estimating retirement rates is to consider historical retirement ages and to create a profile of expected retirement based on age. The average retirement age in the mining industry over the past 20 years has been 59.5 years. This is lower than the current national average of 62 years. Depending on the age of entry into the mining workforce and career paths taken, some industry workers can be eligible to retire as young as 45 to 50 years old. Pending retirements and succession planning are priorities for industry employers. Respondents to MiHR’s 2010 National Employer Survey indicated that, on average, over a third of their workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years, with the largest proportion eligible in three to five years (12.5 per cent, as shown in Figure 11). Retirement rates will therefore have a major impact on hiring requirements in the near future. Burgeoning retirement rates and the aging workforce suggest that mining employers need to find ways of encouraging retirement-age workers to continue to support skills development in the future. Because depth of experience and skills are critical for the future performance of the mining industry, training and mentoring younger or newer employees is of critical importance. As noted above, most respondents to MiHR’s survey indicated that training and development activities are commonly outsourced. Encouraging retired workers to take on this role could be an excellent way for employers to ensure extended knowledge transfer and mentoring of younger workers after the mature workers retire. It also creates a niche of employment opportunities for retired or semi-retired workers. 2010 Employment and Hiring Forecasts 21
Page 1 and 2: Canadian Mining Industry Employment
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: List of Tables and Figures Table 1
Page 7 and 8: Executive Summary The Canadian mini
Page 9 and 10: Table 1 Total Hiring Requirements F
Page 11: Occupational Forecasts of Employmen
Page 14 and 15: Background A main strategic objecti
Page 16 and 17: The NOC-S system 4 was developed by
Page 18 and 19: Table 4 Canada’s Top 10 Minerals
Page 20 and 21: Figure 3 Labour Productivity and Em
Page 22 and 23: under-represented groups. As noted
Page 24 and 25: Figure 7 Average Benchmark Hourly W
Page 28 and 29: Figure 11 Proportion of Mining Work
Page 30 and 31: In 2010, Women in Mining (WIM) Cana
Page 32 and 33: Immigrants to Canada — particular
Page 34 and 35: • an online portal where stakehol
Page 36 and 37: Table 7 presents the cumulative cha
Page 38 and 39: Table 9 Cumulative Hiring Requireme
Page 40 and 41: The top occupations in terms of hir
Page 42 and 43: if metal and mineral prices decline
Page 44 and 45: As shown in Figure 17, changes in e
Page 46 and 47: Figure 18 Total Hiring Requirements
Page 48 and 49: Table 17 Cumulative Hiring Requirem
Page 50 and 51: Table 20 shows the occupations with
Page 53 and 54: 4 Discussion In the near future, th
Page 55 and 56: Appendix A This appendix outlines t
Page 57 and 58: Appendix B This Appendix lists the
Page 60: www.mihr.ca • www.mininghrforecas

Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts - MiHR

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?