Recent Labour and Education Trends Regarding Geoscientists and Geological Engineers in Canada

A review of information from Statistics Canada and the Council of Chairs of Canadian Earth Science Departments examined the geoscience workforce in Canada over the last two decades through economic cycles and environmental transitions. After a period of growth in Canada (2006 to 2011), geoscientist numbers in the labour market declined by 11% from 2011 to 2021, whereas the numbers of geological engineers grew by 56%. The combined total for both classifications remained fairly constant. By Census 2021 Canada had about 11,000 geoscientists (including oceanographers) and about 4,000 geological engineers. Professional, scientific and technical services, mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction are the major employment sectors. Employment for geoscientists is cyclical and tied to economic and commodity-price cycles. Alberta experienced the largest decline in geoscientist numbers (-34.5%), correlated with reduced oil- and gas-development investments from 2014 to 2020. Growth in other provinces (e.g. British Columbia, Ontario) partly offset the decline in Alberta. Nearly 30% of geoscientists are immigrants, as defined by their countries of birth. The university education supply pipeline shows that enrolment in core geoscience and geological engineering undergraduate programs dropped significantly (50% decline from 2015 to 2022) with a corresponding drop in graduations. However, enrolments in Earth Science programs related to aspects beyond core geoscience and geological engineering (e.g. environmental science in its broadest sense) tripled between 2007 and 2022. If these trends continue, the majority of students will be enrolled in these associated programs rather than graduating with core geoscience knowledge and skills. There is a need for more comprehensive and up-to-date data to represent the characteristics of the geoscience workforce accurately and to inform policy decisions and individual career choices. The current situation implies that shortages of qualified geoscience professionals could develop in future years.