OTTAWA — BuildForce Canada recently released the 2018–2027 Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward forecast, which offers a 10-year scenario of workforce supply and demand by trade, province and region to help the industry manage workforce requirements.
According to the forecast, B.C. is facing tight construction labour markets over the coming decade with approximately 22 per cent of the industry’s workforce expected to retire by 2027.
With the current number of anticipated project starts scheduled for 2019, non-residential employment requirements are expected to rise by 20 per cent between 2019 and 2021, ahead of the available local workforce, before declining again as projects near completion later in the decade, the report states.
“Unprecedented short-term non-residential construction demand along with sustained levels of residential construction in the lower mainland will place significant strain on the province’s existing workforce,” states the forecast. “To meet these demands, the non-residential sector alone will need to add 17,000 new workers between 2019 and 2021.”
In the Lower Mainland, it will be the stacking of non-residential construction projects related to infrastructure or transportation as well as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project that will keep the industry busy from 2019 to 2023.
B.C. is already struggling with recruitment challenges and that is expected to worsen with the start of these new major projects, the report continues. The current timing of planned mining, pipeline, transportation, infrastructure and liquefied natural gas investments should result in the largest swell in engineering construction requirements in recent history.
According to the forecast, “During this timeframe, there is a high potential for recruiting challenges for some selected trades. The growing rate of retirements and the less than adequate supply of locally available replacement workers will mean the industry will, with increasing regularity, be required to recruit workers from outside the province’s construction sector or outside the industry.”
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed