Thousands of workers needed to keep pace with B. C.’ s booming construction industry: report

British Columbia’s construction industry will need more than 40,000 workers over the next 10 years to keep pace with a projected rise in industry demand, according to a new forecast of labour supply and demand by the Construction Sector Council.

The report, released Tuesday, estimates the province’s construction workforce will grow by 11,000 positions from 2012 to 2020 — driven mainly by mining, pipeline, industrial and utility projects in the northern region. At the same time, about 33,200 workers spanning a variety of trades are expected to retire.

“An estimated 24,400 new entrants are estimated to be available to fill the overall increase in labour requirements. From this perspective, across the decade, the local construction workforce will need to attract 20,000 new workers from outside the industry to meet total labour requirements,” the report states.

Strong requirements in the north are expected to draw industrial trades such as carpenters, electricians, crane operators, heavy equipment operators, ironworkers, insulators, millwrights, pipefitters, truck drivers and welders. The report suggests demand in these occupations will increase steeply from now until 2014, then continue on a more moderate growth track after 2015.

Residential construction labour requirements are also expected to heat up, after a period of “dramatic decline” in 2008 and 2009.

“I think this province is poised for growth,” said M. J. Whitemarsh, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B. C.

“For the past 12 to 18 months we’ve been in a trough, but we are going to start coming up now. You’ll see huge changes in 2013 and 2014.”