Canada’s energy industry is heading toward a significant workforce crunch, with a new report warning that the sector could see more than 72,600 job vacancies open up by 2035 a gap driven by a wave of aging workers walking out the door just as demand for new energy expertise is ramping up.
The findings come from Careers in Energy, a labour-market information platform operated by Energy Safety Canada and partly funded through the federal government’s Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program. The report paints a detailed picture of an industry at a crossroads: not in retreat, but in transformation, and badly in need of the people to carry it forward.
Of the projected 72,600 vacancies, the bulk roughly 54,200 will come from retirements alone. The remaining 18,400 positions represent entirely new jobs, created by growth in areas like liquefied natural gas, low-carbon hydrogen, biomass fuels, and carbon capture and storage. In other words, this isn’t just about backfilling old roles. The energy sector is simultaneously losing its most experienced hands while trying to build an entirely new workforce from the ground up.
The report doesn’t frame this as a distant problem. Labour shortages could begin to bite as early as 2027, with some of the sharpest pressure falling on drilling and servicing operations, engineering, skilled trades, facility operations, transportation, and heavy equipment operation roles that take years to train for and can’t simply be filled overnight.
That timeline aligns with broader federal labour market data. Statistics Canada has flagged persistent shortages in skilled trades, construction, engineering support, and industrial occupations for several years running, with employers across industries struggling to fill technical roles. The overlap between those national trends and what Careers in Energy is projecting for the energy sector is notable and underscores just how competitive the hiring environment is likely to become.
One might assume that advances in automation and energy technology would reduce the need for human labour. To a degree, that’s true newer systems can generate more energy with fewer workers than older infrastructure required. But the report pushes back against the idea that technology is a cure-all.
Rising energy demand overall, combined with the highly specialized skills required to operate next-generation energy systems, means the sector will still need a steady pipeline of qualified workers. The jobs may look different than they did a generation ago, but there will be plenty of them and filling them won’t be easy without deliberate, coordinated action.
Energy Safety Canada described the report’s findings as a call to action, emphasizing the need for “coordinated workforce planning, training and upskilling” to help Canada recruit and hold onto the talent required to keep both legacy energy industries and newer clean energy sectors running.
Geographically, the workforce challenge is not evenly spread. Western Canada Alberta in particular remains the heartland of Canada’s energy employment, with high concentrations of workers in oil and gas extraction, energy services, and related construction. Saskatchewan and British Columbia also carry significant energy workforces tied to resource development.
But the report highlights a shifting dynamic in Atlantic Canada. While the region’s energy workforce is considerably smaller than the west’s, it could grow meaningfully in the years ahead. Wind power, hydrogen production, and biofuel projects are positioning Atlantic Canada as an emerging player in the country’s energy transition and with that growth comes new demand for skilled workers who aren’t yet in the pipeline.
Perhaps the most important framing in the report is what it says about the overall health of the sector. Canada’s energy industry has had its share of turbulence commodity price swings, policy shifts, global market pressures but employment in oil and gas extraction, utilities, and support services has proven resilient over time. There has been no sustained long-term decline.
That picture is consistent with what the report concludes: this is an industry undergoing a transition, not a contraction. Traditional energy employers are expected to remain major job creators even as lower-emission technologies expand alongside them.
The message for policymakers, training institutions, and industry associations is clear. The workforce gap won’t fill itself, and the window to act is shorter than it might appear.
