This latest crash in commodities has been devastating for skilled mining industry workers but the huge shortage of people that was already in place has helped people in finding new work. Most mines were operating short an engineer or geologist, two or three in some cases. Good miners and drillers were harder to find than deposits and it wasn’t uncommon to find exploration companies delay drilling programs because they had no one to log the core. The causes of these shortages were numerous; the infrastructure to train and educate mining industry people simply didn’t exist or were woefully inadequate and underfunded being the biggest factor. Most older geologist will talk of the early 1990’s when jobs for geologist were almost non-existent, this pushed many to look for work in different industries. Enrollment into Mining Engineering or Geology programs dropped drastically and funding for those programs were greatly reduced. By the time Universities and Colleges caught up with the industry it was almost too late. Just last year Confederation College in Thunder Bay started offering diamond drilling and line cutting courses. A good idea but 5 years too late, I wouldn’t be surprised if the program gets cut or its funding reduced in a year or two when no one signs up for it.
It’s a terribly frustrating cycle, but the next boom will be even worse because of our ever aging workforce. It’s no secret that our skilled workers are primarily made up of people close to retirement age, this crash will probably speed up the process and force many into retirement. By the time the next boom comes along, and be sure that it will come, we will be so unprepared and short of workers it’ll be a scary place out there. For geologists like me, it’ll be great, but for an investor, mine manager or project manager, it'll be a hard fight to get the few qualified and experienced personnel running their projects and most will suffer as a result. Many drill programs will be delayed, many mines will be inefficiently run and a lot of job postings will be featured on InfoMine.
Be sure of it.
3 comments:
There's no such thing as a labor shortage. There is such a thing as employers who are unwilling to offer enough money to entice people to join their organization. There is such a thing as an employer who provides such unpleasant working conditions that no one wants to work for them REGARDLESS of the wage! Open up your eyes. Worker shortage is looking at the wrong side of the equation. Wages and benefits need to be discussed in the same conversation as any supposed "shortage." If you offer enough money and provide a pleasant enough working environ, you'll not only have workers lining up around the block to work for you, you'll also have people SWITCHING from other industries just to make the higher wages at your organization (anyone remember how people flocked to technology in the 1990's? People were even SELF-FUNDING their own education to switch careers and get into technology.) Then, certain greedy special interest groups invented and hyped the "worker shortage" canard to justify all sorts of government assistance (grants, visas, etc.).
Gimme a break!
See my answer in "Labour shortages in mining cont."
A shortage of skilled labour in the mining industry?...what?...This isn't anything new..(except to those owners who were so busy shooting themselves in the foot for the last ten years, that they didn't notice their pants were falling down)..
When things start picking up I imagine they'll get caught short-handed again,wondering where the employees they let go,went off to...(only now those employees they Do manage to get back, won't be as quick with their feelings of loyalty to the employer)...and on it goes.
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