Inside Alberta’s Labour Crunch

Well, it’s official. After returning to Alberta from my stint down in the United States, I’ve decided to join the union and cash in on what remains of Alberta’s oilsands boom. Back in the US, I spent my days writing about the roaring economy back here in Edmonton. It seems my skills are in high demand back home here. While down in the US, I stumbled onto a list of the top 50 occupations in Alberta that are the toughest to fill (LINK - pdf), and both my skill sets (surveying and economizing) ranked in the top 50.

I have had a heck of a time finding the right Economist job, and since surveying pays better (though the hours can be long), I joined up with the union of Operating Engineers here in Edmonton and am now working out at the Shell Scotford expansion.

As an economist participating in Alberta’s energy boom, I’ve got a unique angle on the whole situation. Consider the following conversation I heard in the smoke pit yesterday, between three apprentice carpenters:

Apprentice #1: “I hear the president of TIC is out and about the site today, seeing how we are doing”.

Apprentice #2: “That’s reason enough for me to get back to work and move around”.

Apprentice #3: “What? There’s a damn labour crunch, man. They can’t get guys. What are they going to do if they see you standing around? Fire you?”

Apprentice #2: “Yeah, I guess. I mean, even if they did, I’d pull a slip from the hall and could be back out here next week for another company”.

Apprentice #1: “I could give two shits bout this job. There’s better hours up north anyways, and there’s an open call for guys”.

This conversation gives you an inea as to how construction workers in Alberta think: it’s all about the hours, the extras like living allowance (upwards of $140 a day, tax-free), and the schedule of the job. Most jobs around Edmonton run on a “4-10’s” shift, or four days of ten hour shifts for regular time. A guy earns overtime on Fridays and double time if he works Saturday or Sunday. If you’re one of the ‘hard trades’ like pipefitter or electrician, you’re getting paid at least 35 an hour, plus 10% vacation and holiday pay, which pans out to be roughly 39 bucks an hour.

Most workers prefer the “10 and four” shift, which is distinctly different from the “4-10’s”. A “10 and four” will give you ten days of work, followed by four days off. That sort of shift lets you take advantage of overtime and double time. Assuming a guy makes $39 an hour, a 10 and four shift will gross you $5,265 per shift. At two shifts per month, that’s just over ten grand each month. If a guy gets $140 a day live-out allowance, you can tag three grand a month tax free onto that figure. Not many guys get live-out allowance, and in Fort McMurray’s high-priced rental market, that cash gets eaten up quite fast. Most workers stay in camp, and some of them live there full-time, living without a fixed address. These guys are “camp creatures”, or guys who prefer the fixed pace of camp life to something more regular. In camp, you have no expenses. No rent, truck payment or phone bills.

To get these shifts, most workers head north, which makes it difficult to recruit guys for work in and around Edmonton, where there is less overtime and double time. Most of the guys who work around Edmonton on the downstream end of projects have families and prefer to sleep in their own bed each night. I fall into this category. I’m not making anywhere near that 10-13 grand a month range, but it definitely pays better than working as an economist. This is the stuggle: do you watch the boom go by, or do you cash in?