Around 100,000 jobs open in Alberta — but many companies can't find those with specific skills

Alberta's worker shortage has shown some signs of levelling off in recent months, but similar to the rest of the country, industries that rely heavily on skilled workers report feeling constrained as their operations continue to struggle.

The worker shortage continues even as employment in Alberta rose by 25,000 in December, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. In that time, the province's unemployment rate remained at 5.8 per cent.  As of last quarter, there were around 100,000 job vacancies in Alberta, StatsCan said. 

Fergus Dunphy is chief financial officer for two Canadian crane companies, including the Calgary-based Morwest Crane and Services.

Crane operation pays well, Dunphy said, but is a highly demanding job — workers typically make their way to the top of a crane by 5 or 6 a.m., and are sometimes up in the sky for up to 10 hours, often working six or seven days a week.

He said he's noticed a generational shift lately.

"We're seeing a large portion of the baby boomers heading to retirement right now. Seems like that generation was far more willing to work more labour-intensive industries," he said.

According to a November report from the Business Council of Alberta, more than 60 per cent of respondents in the province said they were having difficulty filling positions they needed to meet demand.

Scott Crockatt, vice-president of communications with the organization, said while there is a very robust labour market in Alberta right now, the province is verging on a serious shortage of labour.

"That's widespread across a number of industries, but there are some areas where that's particularly acute, like energy, manufacturing and construction," he said, adding the shortage is having a particular impact on highly technical jobs like heavy-duty mechanics, millwrights and crane operators.

Jason Gillespie, the president of Pathfinder Recruitment Group, a construction and architecture-specific staffing firm, said while he wouldn't say companies are panicking right now, they are implementing changes based on the demands of recruits, such as implementing hybrid workplaces.

"They're also increasing their salaries to retain people and to attract people," he said. "I've seen upwards of 30 per cent of what that role would normally take. So, they are getting a little desperate."

Nearly $13 billion was lost across Canada in 2022 in the manufacturing sector due to the labour shortage, according to an annual labour survey from the industry group Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), which surveyed 563 manufacturers across the country.

CME has attributed the shortage to a lack of interest in manufacturing jobs from younger Canadians and an exodus of aging baby boomers.

The federal government has said that it plans to welcome 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025 to mitigate labour shortages across the country.