Increasing energy prices and demand have led to consistent growth in Canada’s oil and gas sector in the past 10 years.   Canada is now the world’s eighth-largest producer of crude oil, pumping 2.5 million of the world’s 86 million barrels per day. Each barrel fetches $70.00 (U.S.) - an enormous increase on December 2001’s $15.95 per barrel.

Statistics Canada’s  the Economy looks at trends in Canada’s energy sector over the last ten years and predicts that, as demand continues to rise, oil production will become increasingly profitable in hard-to-reach places like Alberta’s oil sands.

During the past decade oil and gas industry employment has increased faster than Canada’s average - total employment in oil and gas amounted to roughly 300,000 in 2006, up from around 245,000 in 1997. Exploration, extraction and production are responsible for the increase, increasing from 107,000 in 1997 to roughly 177,000 today. The majority (75%) of the jobs are in Alberta.

The impact on wages has been pronounced. In 1997, employees in oil and gas extraction earned 58% more than the average worker. By 2006, this gap had widened to 80%.

Oil and gas extraction workers earned an average of $30.36 (₤14.09) an hour in 2006, compared with the Canadian average of $16.73 (£7.72). 

The ‘midstream’ component of the gas and oil industry includes pipelines, rail, truck and tanker transportation, and storage. Just as for oil and gas extraction, workers in these industries are primarily male and have substantially higher average hourly earnings $34.36 (£15.85) than the Canadian average.

The ‘downstream’ component consists of refining and marketing, and includes refineries, gas distribution utilities, oil product wholesalers, service stations and petrochemical companies. Wages averaged $14.78 (£6.82) in this sector.

Jobs in the oil and gas industry are much more likely to be non-unionised and far more likely to be held by full-time, male, workers than average.

Not all of the effects of the oil and gas boom have been positive. Alberta’s infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the rate of growth - leading to housing shortages and overcrowding in schools and hospitals.  Additionally, Alberta’s boom has resulted in labour shortages in all industries, driving up wages and prices across the board. However, wage increases in Alberta have still not been sufficient to attract the much-needed labour, and many businesses have had to reduce their hours as a result of staffing shortages.

25 May 2007