How is the Job market?

[headdamage]

How is the job market in Alberta these days?

[Red90]

Found a good job for you.

[headdamage]

lol

[B-Red]

Environmental work is in high demand. There are some unique opportunities. Government based jobs are your best choice.

[Trevor]

Oil patch related work has picked up a bit, things appear to have at least bottomed...mind you at 10% to 20% rig utilization that we saw through a lot of 2016, it couldn't go much lower. The uptick in activity is still mild, but since most companies have cut so deep, it doesn't take much to feel really busy. That's Edmonton area. As I understand it the Calgary front end staffing hasn't shown much signs of bouncing back just yet. I expect the recent OPEC deal to implode in short order, and we'll see prices threatening the mid to low $30 range early into the new year. Accordingly this uptick in oil patch related activity could face some hurdles, but it's likely prices will settle in the $40 range again.

The natural gas market is really the big driver here of late, and OPEC only affects it insofar as LNG pricing is concerned, which is irrelevant for Alberta until an LNG plant in BC actually gets built. 

Construction in Edmonton is a different matter. I'm hearing a lot of horror stories from folks in that space. I think they are simply feeling the pinch a bit later than most because there were several HUGE projects running through 2015/2016 that are now done (Rogers, Museum, Anthony Henday expansion, etc). There's not much on the books for 2017.

[headdamage]

I've got a bunch of applications out, hope I get some bites. Four years is enough time in Yellowknife ;)

[Trevor]

What specifically are you looking for? Drop me a pm if you like with the details and I can keep an eye open for you if you're looking for something tied into the oil patch.

[ugly_90]

Andrew, I don't know if you have much to run back to here. Edmonton is creeping along, Calgary hasn't recovered, and southern Alberta didn't seem to reach the peak that the other areas had.

It isn't a secret, but if you look at an Alberta map of oil deposits and expected lifetimes, you can get a picture of where companies will continue to invest, and it usually does follow good geology. Areas around Fox Creek, for example, have been busy for years. Perhaps Swan Hills, maybe. Parts of North East BC are sleepy, some parts are active.

It's hard to say on where to go for work, it depends on what you want to do. It's trickier still to find a place with decent pay and a reasonable cost of living, obviously they don't usually go together.

[headdamage]

Anywhere closer to Calgary than YK is worth looking at.

[ugly_90]

If you recall when this new Alberta government was elected, there were a few promises for new petrochemical jobs, as plastic is somehow more environmental than propane.

I note there are a few competing oilfield companies in the news now vying for plastics plants, potentially in the Edmonton region. They both seem like large projects. Further information is online.

I do note a few job fairs here in Grande Prairie held at hotels by medium sized oilfield services companies. This would have been unheard of a year or two ago during the slowdown.

[Trevor]

Oilfield service companies up in the GP and Ft St John area are having a very hard time finding people. That region is seeing some increased activity, primarily driven by the deep nat gas plays in the area. There's a couple things making it difficult for them finding people though:

1) The drillers/service rig companies are not getting any kind of guarantee on the duration of their programs from the oil company's they work for, so in turn they can't make any pledge to their workers that they will have a job for any period of time. This is pretty common these days as the oil companies regularly grind the service companies on prices, then pull the plug on the contract early into it as market conditions, etc change. Therefore, people that have any kind of a job already, aren't inclined to leave it to return to a oilfield service job that might only last a month or two.

2) The Peace River dam is sucking up a lot of labor in the region. Its big, and assured work for a long period of time. So locals have taken that work and are not interested in giving it up for an uncertain oilfield service job.

This is likely to be a fairly common theme for the oilfield service industry in that area for a bit.