Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts - MiHR

4 Discussion
In the near future, the Canadian mining industry will face significant challenges in meeting the demand for workers.
Slow labour force growth, combined with an aging population, will create significant pressures on the mining labour
market. Despite remarkable achievements over the past five years in increasing the participation of new Canadians,
Aboriginal peoples and women in the mining workforce, there will nevertheless soon be a labour shortage.
By 2020, the mining industry will need to hire nearly 100,000 workers in response to changes in employment and
replacement of workers retiring or leaving the industry (assuming a baseline scenario). This represents nearly one-half of
the size of the 2009 workforce. If commodity prices perform better than expected, the total cumulative hiring requirement
estimate could reach 134,540 workers under the expansionary scenario. Hiring requirements will vary across regions,
generally due to the combined influences of regional productivity rates and the age composition of the workforce.
Making the Best Use of All Possible Sources of Talent
In recent years, the mining industry has adopted proactive strategies to attract, recruit and retain top talent, and
these initiatives will remain a priority over the next decade. Particularly remarkable achievements have been made
in diversifying the mining workforce; however, industry stakeholders will continue, and likely intensify these efforts,
to ensure an adequate supply of labour well into the future.
New strategies may emerge to attract and recruit top talent and ensure that labour shortages do not restrict the mining
sector’s competitiveness and ongoing success. In addition, to build the skilled workforce that will meet mining’s long-term
needs, the industry must continue to develop innovative approaches to industry branding and career promotion, and to
enhance training and education.
Training and education efforts will be particularly important. As older workers retire and the age gap in the industry
increases, young workers entering the mining workforce may lack some of the experience and proficiency of retiring
workers. This new generation of workers may require training, both formal and on-the-job. Continued efforts to find
creative ways to bridge the skills gap between new hires and retiring experienced workers will help train incoming
workers and capture some of the lost knowledge and experience as older workers retire.
2010 Employment and Hiring Forecasts
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