Advancing Green Jobs and Supporting Workforce Resiliency in Alberta

Alberta is emerging from a downturn like no other. In 2020, the province’s economy faced an unprecedented decline due to oil price collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic and a global economic recession. As a result, Alberta’s labour force shrunk by 8% or nearly 180,000 jobs.

Although green jobs and workers were negatively impacted by these market fluctuations, Alberta still boasts the fourth largest region for environmental employment, with approximately 96,000 workers (14% of Canada) employed in various industries and occupations. In other words, 1 in 23 working Albertans was in a green role in 2020.

With the drive to more responsible and sustainable natural resource development, energy diversification, waste management and recycling, and other green initiatives, the province may need to hire close to 21,000 new environmental workers in the next five years to address job growth. Another 14,000 workers may need to be replaced due to age-related attrition, resulting in nearly 35,000 net environmental job openings by 2025.

ECO Canada’s labour market information (LMI) publications for Alberta inform organizational and individual decision-making by providing provincial quarterly green job snapshots, employment estimates, and worker transition resources. Together, our reports help shape a workforce strategy for the province and the Canadian environmental workforce.

The Province of Alberta is working in partnership with the Government of Canada to provide employment support programs and services.

Millions of jobs are posted online daily by employers across Canada. With at least 75% of job vacancies advertised on the web, online job posting data have emerged as a useful indicator of hiring needs and trends.

Every day, data analytics companies scan the Internet to compile and classify these job postings, providing an opportunity for researchers to study the state of the job market in real time. This type of research is referred to as Job Posting Analysis (JPA).

ECO Canada analyzes environmental job posting data from Gartner’s TalentNeuron platform to get a snapshot of environmental job opportunities across industries, occupations and specializations in Alberta over time. With this information, organizations and individuals can identify recruitment trends, gaps and opportunities for environmental workers and support the development and maintenance of a qualified and productive workforce.

Learn more about our JPA methodology

JPA has many benefits, including the use of data by:

• Job seekers: Data tells them where the jobs are, what skills are in demand and which sectors of the economy are hiring.
• Employers: They get insights into which skills are transferable and when supply is short.
• Policymakers: Real-time data allows early detection of employment trends.
• Academic planners: Data provides relevant information regarding environmental talent and training needs.

Alberta’s labour market has partially recovered from the initial COVID-19 shutdown. Our latest forecast reveals the province could add 353,500 new jobs in the next five years, reflecting a growth of 16%. Nearly 6% of the total new jobs could be an environmental role.

Download a copy of our National Labour Market Outlook to 2025

Identifying, advancing and nurturing green jobs is integral to the long-term success of Alberta’s economy. Collective decisions and initiatives framed by timely, relevant and credible labour market information (LMI) could fast-track job recovery for many unemployed and under-employed Albertans, while also addressing green talent needs and challenges for the sector.

We are enhancing our forecast for the province to provide a robust snapshot of the green job potential in Alberta for the next 10 years. Our updated forecasts will include hiring needs due to job growth and age-related attrition by occupation, industry and environmental specialization.

Our latest outlook forecasts 35,000 net environmental job openings by 2025 across Alberta.

As the environmental sector develops, so too will the types of jobs available. As some industries grow, others may see a decline in jobs, and some workers will be required to switch industries.

Our worker transferability fact sheets provide those seeking new employment opportunities with helpful information about an alternative role that uses some of the same skills as their current job.