Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and trade says the new $1.2-million Alberta Centre for Labour Market Research (ACLMR) will help inform how “best to continue to support our traditional energy sector while also taking full advantage of energy transitions.”

Matt Jones told DOB Energy the centre is “a game-changer” for improving knowledge of overall labour market developments, and specific cases within different sectors.

The government is funding the centre with an annual grant of $399,945 over the next three years. The ACLMR will operate out of the University of Alberta’s College of Social Sciences and invests in researchers who explore critical policy issues in jobs and employment. It operates as part of the Alberta At Work Labour Market Enhancement Initiative.

“The whole point here is to provide an opportunity to create stronger ecosystems to support the development of labour market information analysis in Alberta,” Jones said.

“We want to know everything we can about Alberta’s constantly changing and evolving labour markets, so that we can better inform the various policy choices and initiatives.”

Access to papers and journals covering the labour market is free and open to all by searching the ACLMR website. There is already an extensive library of back issues on the website, with ongoing research added as it becomes available.

Topic examples available are as diverse as Local Labour Market Impacts of Energy Boom-Bust-Boom in Western Canada (Journal of Urban Economic, 2012), to a look at local economic conditions for the Texas shale boom (Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2020).

Jones called it a treasure trove of information.

He added that much is changing in the employment scene in Alberta’s energy sector in terms of well-noted areas such as activity scaleups and retirements, but there are other factors to explore such as A.I., gig work and technological change.

“As it relates to energy, we certainly want to ensure first and foremost our energy sector continues to thrive, but also as those changes happen, that we’re best able to support the workforce both from a training perspective, but also to their transition to other adjacent work, such as in renewables, hydrogen, or in CCUS,” he said.

Industry and others can suggest research questions

The centre will comprise 25 labour market researchers across five higher education institutions including the University of Alberta, Athabasca University, Mount Royal University, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge.

The centre officially launched on September 3 and is led by Joseph Marchand at the U of A’s department of economics.

Jones said there is also the opportunity for industry and others to present potential research questions to the ACLMR.

“[Researcher] participation is voluntary and they’re going to decide, ultimately, what topics they want to dive into,” Jones said.

“But they’re asking for direction from the public, from stakeholders, and I think that’s smart so that what they produce is more relevant to the labour markets, and the users and workers in there.”

Ultimately, the centre is a source for charting a new path through the coming challenges to employment, Jones said.

“As we look to the future with things like artificial intelligence or the energy transition, again there’s so many changes that are coming that if we have better information today, we might be able to make those changes more positive and less harmful to Alberta’s labour market, and better prepare future workers,” he said.

“I think there’s tremendous opportunity here to basically inform better decision-making from the Alberta government.”