WRLA completes comprehensive labour market study in Alberta

The Western Retail Lumber Association Inc. is pleased to announce the completion and publication of a comprehensive Labour Market Survey, conducted in the province of Alberta in partnership with the provincial government.

Labour challenges have been identified as the number one pain point for the Building Supply Sector in recent years. While the sector is critical to both local and overall economies, very little statistical information about it exists. This study aimed to fill this gap. WRLA will action this data to address challenges and bridge gaps with programs and services.

Between 2017 and 2023, and despite the significant negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta experienced overall growth in new building investment, renovation investment, property conversion and new housing starts. Alberta’s building supply sector comprises approximately 2,126 establishments, representing approximately 28,500 employees. The sector workforce is primarily composed of males aged between 25 and 44 years.

Across Alberta’s building supply workforce, vacancies accounted for between 1% and 5%, with higher vacancy rates among general store staff and other related sector occupations. Employers estimated that the majority of their departing employees will opt to leave the sector altogether, rather than transition to other employment within the sector.

In addition, over the next five years, the average anticipated rate of retirement is estimated to be 19%. At the same time, the majority of employers expect to see an increase of approximately 10%-15% in the overall size of their workforce. Based on an estimated increase in the total number of workers of 10%, the overall annual growth rate of Alberta’s building supply sector is estimated to be 2.5% over the next five years.

In order to fill current vacancies and meet forecast sector growth, findings from this study indicate that 8,918 new employees will be required over the next five years, which equates to about 1,780 employees per year.

In order to fill vacancies and support sector growth, employers will need to move beyond traditional recruitment sources and explore new or innovative ways of meeting labour demand. To this end, key challenges to recruitment and retention should be addressed.

• The overall proportion of employees from these underrepresented populations accounted for only approximately a quarter of new hires.

• Building supply sector members must aggressively expand target labour pools to include employees from nontraditional sources.

• Employers identified low salaries, particularly for entrylevel positions, as a challenge to recruitment. This challenge could be exacerbated in Alberta, where the oil and gas industries can offer attractive salaries and benefits packages to relevant labour pools.

• Building supply sector employers must enhance employee remuneration.

• In order to attract new hires to the industry, training opportunities that clearly or directly lead to careers in the building supply sector must be developed.

• Sector employers must work together to increase awareness of the sector and consider the development of industry attraction and recruitment strategies.

• Sector-relevant training, that both supports employees within their existing roles and also supports employees to move into managerial positions, should be developed.

• Sector employers should develop formal training and career progression strategies.

The complete study is available on the WRLA website here.