From the Pembina Institute in regards to the future of oil industry employment
Employment figures demonstrate the impact that this has had on workers. Where once the level of employment in the sector was characterised by periods of ‘boom’ and ‘bust’, depending on fluctuations in the global oil price, after 2012 jobs became decoupled from profits and production levels. Employment in the sector peaked in 2012, at 38 jobs per thousand barrels of oil per day produced. By 2023, it was at 22 jobs per thousand barrels — a 43% decrease, despite the fact that oil and gas production grew 47% during the same period.
Given the pace of the international energy transition, not only do we expect this trend to continue, we expect it to be exacerbated in the years ahead. In the next decade, as Canada’s oil and gas industry faces a global market in which demand for its products is plateauing and beginning to fall, the sector is likely to be smaller overall, and the companies that remain will double down on these cost-cutting behaviours. Governments — especially those with significant oil and gas production in their jurisdiction — have a responsibility to acknowledge this new reality and prepare workers for it.
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