Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts - MiHR

Table 8 summarizes the cumulative hiring requirements for Canada in 2012, 2015 and 2020, under the contractionary,
baseline and expansionary scenarios. The baseline scenario projects the need to hire 29,080 workers by 2012, due
to changes in economic factors and to increased retirements and other separations from the industry. If commodity
prices perform better than expected in the baseline scenario, the total cumulative hiring requirements could grow to
41,150 workers.
Table 8
Cumulative Hiring Requirements Forecasts – Canada
By Scenario – 2012, 2015, 2020
Cumulative Hiring Requirements
2012 2015 2020
Contractionary 15,160 28,120 56,280
Baseline 29,080 53,150 99,990
Expansionary 41,150 74,100 134,540
Source: Mining Industry Human Resources Council, Summer 2010.
By 2020, under the baseline scenario, cumulative hiring requirements are forecast at nearly 100,000 new mining workers,
with a range of 56,280 for the contraction scenario to 134,540 workers under the expansion scenario.
Forecasts by Occupation
The current forecasting system includes up to 55 different mining occupations as defined by NOC-S categories. Given
the constraints of NOC-S categories discussed in Chapter 2, these occupational categories represent about half the
entire mining industry workforce in Canada (as defined by NAICS industry codes). 26 The selected mining occupations
can be grouped into the following six general categories:
• Trades and Undesignated Occupations
• Professional and Physical Science Occupations
• Managers and/or Financial Occupations
• Support Workers
• Technical Occupations
• Supervisors, Coordinators and Foremen
Table 9 provides estimates of cumulative hiring requirements for the baseline scenario under these broad occupational
categories. Each category also lists requirements for a selection of occupations within the group that are most relevant
to the industry. The greatest need will be in Trades and Undesignated Occupations, at 31,797, which represents about
32 per cent of total hiring requirements by 2020. The other broad occupational categories expected to be in high demand
are Supervisors, Coordinators and Foremen (6,258 workers, six per cent of total hiring requirements); Professional and
Physical Science (3,810 workers, 4 per cent); and Technical Occupations (3,204 workers, three per cent).
26 Statistics Canada National Occupational Classification — Statistics (NOC-S) codes are the source of the occupational breakdown. The missing NOCs
currently represent about half mining employment. Ultimately, the goal is to cover a greater share of mining employment through an extended
list of occupations.
2010 Employment and Hiring Forecasts
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