Carpentry: One of the Most Dangerous Jobs in Canada is Facing a Major Labour Shortage.
Written on December 4, 2023
This paper will dive into the statistics regarding Carpenters across Canada, and specifically in Manitoba. It will explore the workplace health and safety profile of carpenters, some primary hazards that they face, and Workers Compensation statistics to determine the overall risks to their health and safety. Carpenters are fundemental to the increased growth of our society, they help build houses, prepare natural resource extraction facilities in underground mining operations and work in the forestry sector. They face many risks and challenges both at work and in the labour market. Despite this, Carpenters who are able to work safely, without incident, often have very stable unionized or self-employed, full-time employment.
What is a Carpenter?
A Carpenter engages in the construction and repair of diverse structures predominantly utilizing wood, encompassing responsibilities such as moving, measuring, cutting, shaping, assembling, and joining materials, as well as reading, preparing, and interpreting blueprints and drawings, providing cost estimates and documentation for clients, adhering to building codes and regulations, and overseeing apprentices or other workers, while also employing, cleaning, and maintaining various equipment and tools. In Canada, Carpenters are classified under the National Occupational Classification (NOC) number 7271 within the broader category of Trades, transport, and equipment operators (7xxx), specifically under Industrial, electrical, and construction trades (72xx), and more specifically under Carpenters and cabinetmakers (727x). As of 2021, there were around 127,200 workers designated as NOC 7271, and the profession is experiencing a looming labor shortage due to more carpenters retiring than being trained. With the average age of carpenters in 2021 at 38.9 years, the Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) anticipates nearly 16% of the workforce to retire by 2030, making this job one of the most understaffed and reliant on immigration in Canada, with 46% of new hires expected to be immigrants.
Union density is challenging to determine precisely, but based on published statistics from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) and Unifor, we can estimate that at least 27% of Manitoba carpenters are unionized. In these estimations, we exclude self-employed Carpenters as they will not be represented by a union in most situations and divide stated represented union members by the remaining employed Carpenters. Nationally we can estimate Union Density in the same fashion using UBC’s representation of 44,944 Carpenters across various provinces and removing self-employed workers, the estimated union density is around 50%.
Carpenters are covered by the Employment Standards Code, the Workplace Health & Safety Act and the Workers Compensation Act. Carpentry is also a regulated profession by Apprenticeship Manitoba. The Red Seal is not explicitly required by law to work as a carpenter, it is up to the employer whether or not to require it, however most do.
What are the Primary Health & Safety Risks for Carpenters in Canada?
The principal risk profile for Carpenters can be categorized into three distinct domains: Discomfort, Hazards, and Location.
As per the National Occupational Classification (NOC) online database, Carpenters encounter Discomfort, particularly associated with noise and non-toxic dust exposure. The effective mitigation of these risks often relies on the proper utilization of personal protective equipment (PPE). Given their proximity to power tools, specialized woodworking equipment, and other heavy machinery at job sites, Carpenters are typically required to use hearing protection to mitigate the risk of hearing loss and the disturbance caused by loud machinery. Non-toxic dusts, such as sawdust or dust from stone work, are commonly addressed through the use of masks or respirators.
Hazards confronted by Carpenters predominantly involve the utilization of dangerous tools and exposure to hazardous work locations. Adequate training, typically spanning two to four years of post-secondary trade school and completion of a Red Seal Apprenticeship, serves to mitigate these hazards. Primary dangerous equipment includes Hand Tools, Metal Fabricators, and Power Saws. The precarious nature of work locations, where Carpenters are involved in constructing buildings and structures, heightens the risk of collapse or failure, particularly during underground construction, roof installation, or work in ‘under construction’ buildings or houses.
The third category, Location, encapsulates the varied working conditions Carpenters face, spanning indoor and outdoor environments, underground spaces, and exposure to extreme temperatures. Managing these location-related risks necessitates effective communication with management or their union regarding expectations, temperature-related risks, air quality, and rest breaks. The majority of Carpenters engage in active construction or mining operations, with a small minority working in a highly controlled shop environment.
Infrastructure Health & Safety of Ontario (IHSA) identifies five major conditions prevalent in Carpenters’ work: Asbestos Disease, Contact Dermatitis, Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) and vibration-induced white finger (VWF), Noise-induced hearing loss, and Occupational Asthma.
AWCBC and other Workers Compensation Statistics
While specific NOC 7271 data is not available from AWCBC directly, we do have data on the sector as a whole. As a sector, Industrial, electrical and construction trades, had one of the highest accepted time loss claims by raw numbers, at 23,936 in 2021, including 273 of the 1,081 total workplace fatalities, or 25.3% of all workplace fatalities in 2021. In addition to the national sectoral statistics, Alberta’s Workers Compensation Board in association with the Ministry of Immigration and Labour found that 22% of all time-loss claims in Alberta Construction were from Carpenters. While this data is only from one year, 2020, if it tracks over the entire country, presumptively converting time-loss to fatalities, the closest estimate we can come up with is that 69 Carpenters die each year on the job, or about 54 per 100,000. This number may be slightly above the actual number of fatalities that occur in an average year, but considering that Carpenters work in mines, forestry and construction, it is not implausible that this occupation may be more dangerous than previously expected.
Is Carpentry Precarious?
The Work Rights Council defines precarity and precarious work like this:
“the term precarious is used to refer to a type of work which is poorly paid, unprotected, and insecure. In practice, this captures situations where workers are not aware of their employment status, lack an employment contract, and have no access to basic employment rights such as paid leave or breaks. More seriously, this includes workers who are paid cash in hand, below the Minimum Wage, and who may inadvertently be working on the black market.”
Upon scrutinizing this definition, the likelihood of Carpenters engaging in precarious employment appears minimal, with some discernible exceptions to this overarching observation. A substantial 92% of Carpenters in Manitoba hold full-time positions, albeit working marginally fewer weeks than counterparts in other professions — 55% maintaining year-round employment compared to 64% in alternative fields. The sole facet of the profession that might manifest precarity pertains to the self-employed subgroup. The intrinsic occupational hazards may accentuate certain precarity facets, particularly when contrasting the protective measures afforded to unionized individuals versus those who are self-employed or contractors. Despite these considerations, it proves challenging, within any precarity framework, to assert that Carpenters, on the whole, embody precarious workers.
An additional dimension within the precarity construct is the ongoing labor shortage confronting the profession. As previously stated, retirement outpaces the influx of newly trained and certified apprentices. This scarcity results in nearly half (46%) of new entrants into the Carpentry profession being immigrants to Canada. Although the prospective impact on the profession’s overall precarity remains uncertain, it seems improbable, at least in the short term leading up to 2030, that this trend will markedly compromise Carpenters’ quality of life. However, the increased immigrant presence in the sector may potentially contribute to salary diminution, particularly if employers leverage Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) with Labour Market Impact Assessments indicating a shortage of qualified native-born Canadian citizens for available positions, potentially leading the field toward precariousness. TFWs often contend with lower wages, diminished workplace protections, and reduced health and safety standards, factors that, in a profession marked by elevated rates of time-loss and fatalities, could precipitate the Carpentry field teetering on the precipice of precarity in the forthcoming decade.
Carpenters do not have an easy job, but it is compensated relatively well with self-reported base salaries in Canada averaging between $62,000 and $83,000 per year. The profession is heavily male-dominated, with men making up about 95% of the workforce. Due to this imbalance Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has been offering employers an additional $5,000 to take on new apprentices, and an additional $5,000 if the apprentices are of a “Equity Deserving Group”.
Conclusion
While Carpentry is a job in high demand, the high level of workplace injuries and fatalities alongside the relatively low wages, in comparison to other regulated trades, may be key detriments to the retention of workers and lead to an increase in the demand for foreign labour to fill the shortage. The above average self-reported wages may be slightly skewed towards Carpenters in the middle of their career, rather than a starting wage, causing new workers to be disappointed in the overall compensation that they are offered versus what they may have expected. This is to be expected with the average age of Carpenters in Canada nearing 40 and only getting older as the years go on due to low levels of retiree replacement. All in all, Carpenters have a dangerous job, that is relatively well paid, but could face challenges in the years to come with the increased levels of immigrant and foreign labour required to maintain a relatively stable workforce. Provincial and Federal governments should look into providing more incentives and cash benefits for young people to get their Red Seal in Carpentry as it is an essential profession to the continuation of society at a post-industrial scale.
Reference List
AWCBC/ACATC. “National Work Injury, Disease and Fatality Statistics Statistiques Nationales Des Accidents, Maladies et Décès Professionnels,” February 2023. https://awcbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/National_Work_Injury_Disease_and_Fatality_Statistics-2019-2021.pdf.
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