The Mining Association of Canada | The Canadian Mining Story: Economic Impacts and Drivers for the Global Energy Transition 2023 37 NewWorkers The tight labour market is a critical impediment at a time when the mining industry needs new workers. The 2021 edition of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council’s (MiHR) Canadian Mining Labour Market Outlook estimates that the Canadian mining industry will need to hire at least 29,000 new workers over the five years from 2021-2025. These new hires are required to replace retirees and fill new positions to meet baseline production targets. MiHR looked at three scenarios to predict the number of workers that will be required by 2025. In the pre-Covid baseline scenario, MiHR anticipates a cumulative five-year hiring requirement of 33,230 people. In a post-Covid pessimistic scenario, the number required drops to 29,720. In the post-Covid optimistic scenario, the number of people required in the five year period rises to 47,610. These open positions may be hard to fill because of the tight labour market and youth attitudes towards the industry and the reduced numbers of graduates in mining-related professions. For example, MiHR commissioned a survey of young Canadians in 202027 that asked the question “How likely, if at all, would you consider working in these sectors?” Results for responses “probably would,” “definitely would,” and “might consider” are shown in Figure 3. MiHR also notes that fewer people are enrolling in and graduating frommining-related engineering programs. From 2015 through 2020, enrollment in the three types of engineering most closely associated with mining all declined. Enrollment in materials and metallurgical engineering declined by 7% from 2015 to 2020, to 934; mining or mineral engineering declined by 41% to 831, and geological engineering declined by 29%, to 556 as shown in Figure 4. Figure 3: Survey Results, Young Canadians’ Attitudes to Work in Sectors 27 Mining Industry Human Resources Council, Mining Year In Review: National Outlook 2021. Figure 15. Sector Percent Definitely/ Probably/ Might Health care 66% High tech 66% Arts and culture 63% Financial services 63% Transportation and logistics 51% Manufacturing 50% Construction 43% Oil and gas 34% Mining 31%
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