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Environmental Job Market Trends (July to September 2020)

Job Posting Analysis: Data in real time

At ECO Canada, we are always looking for ways to deepen our understanding of the environmental job market and to improve the value of our reporting. Our Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports present a snapshot of online recruitment activity levels and trends for Canadian environmental roles. ECO Canada has developed an interactive platform to showcase the types and quantities of environmental job openings being advertised, scraped and reported online every day. Job posting data are updated every 4 months to provide yearly and quarterly insights by region, occupation and environmental specialization.

Strong Environmental Hiring Activity Across Canada in Q3 2020

From July to September (Q3) of this year, over 850,000 unique job ads were advertised online in Canada. Of this, close to 35,000 were for environmental roles – representing a 4.0% EnviroShare (proportion of environmental job ads to all job ads) for job vacancies in the environmental sector. Provincial lockdown protocols were eased as the total number of active COVID-19 cases decreased across the country and many businesses were able to begin operating under new provisions.

The number of Canadian environmental job ads increased by almost 10,000 compared to the previous quarter. This comes as positive news while employers and workers try to recover from the residual effects of the economic shutdown. Ontario employers posted the largest number of online environmental job ads, followed by Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta. However, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut all had an EnviroShare larger than the national average of 4.0%, at 23.5%, 23.7%, and 25.0%, respectively.

Civil engineers continue to be the top occupational group advertising for environmental workers in Canada, with 2,601 vacant positions in Q3, despite a decrease of 489 environmental job ads from the same quarter in 2019. Consistent with our labour demand findings, Natural and applied sciences and related occupations, Management occupations and Business, finance and administration occupations make up the top three occupational categories, comprising 21,963 of all environmental job ads in Q3.

Environmental workers are needed in every region and across most occupations. Environmental job ads have further identified that the key specializations needed from July to September were sustainability, energy and natural resource management.

*Interactive Spotlight Report may take a moment to load

Environmental Job Ads Indicate Uneven Recovery Across Canadian Regions

Prior to the pandemic, an average increase of 2,250 environmental job ads were posted each quarter and environmental job vacancies appeared to be increasing across the sector. Despite this trend, the total number of job ads decreased by almost 250,000 nationally, 18,500 were environmental from April to June (Q2). This quarter brings some much needed optimism, as the number of environmental job ads shows a trend towards economic recovery and the EnviroShare begins to stabilize at a rate that is comparable to pre-COVID levels.

Nationally, the number of environmental job ads in Q3 2020 decreased by 4,000 from the same time last year. However, this same comparison by EnviroShare reveals that the number of online job ads has proportionally increased by 0.3 percentage points, demonstrating relatively more job vacancies across environmental positions. Provinces and territories have been differentially impacted, with some regions experiencing more positive outlooks than others.

*Interactive Trends Report may take a moment to load

A Look Ahead

As we move towards the end of the calendar year, the second wave of COVID-19 may continue to influence environmental job vacancies across the country. As organizations try to navigate these uncertain times, we anticipate an overall reduction in the total number of environmental job ads posted in Canada, comparable to trends observed back in April through June (Q2) of this year.

The Government of Canada is actively working to provide economic tools to environmental businesses and workers. Recent investment in clean technologies, orphan well cleanup, and initiatives focused on conserving lands, waters and ecosystems demonstrate promise for the sector. Further, additional funding has been reallocated to provide job-training support to workers in sectors that have been hit hardest by current market trends and assist them in transitioning to sustainable employment in other fields, such as environmental work.

ECO Canada will continue to actively monitor job posting data to provide timely, relevant and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. Check back in February 2021 for updated information on environmental job vacancies.

governmemt of canada logo
Funded by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Initiatives Program
The opinions and interpretations in this publication are ECO Canada’s and do not necessarily reflect those held by the Government of Canada

With at least 75% of job vacancies in Canada advertised on the web, online job posting data have emerged as a useful indicator of hiring needs and trends. Millions of jobs are posted online daily by employers in Canada, providing an opportunity for researchers to study the state of the job market in real time.

ECO Canada gathers and analyzes trends within the green economy to provide up-to-date, relevant, and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. One approach to guide decision making within organizations and individuals is to analyze the number of environmental jobs advertised online. Our Job Posting Analysis (JPA) presents a snapshot of online recruitment activity and trends for Canadian environmental workers. Data and insights include numbers of environmental online job ads by region, occupation and environmental specialization, and the proportion of all online job ads that represent environmental work across the country over time.

Canada’s environmental workforce is spread throughout industries and occupations. Because of this, it is not possible to directly gather data on the environmental workers using standard employment data classifications, such as the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system. ECO Canada has developed an approach to analyze environmental job vacancies in Canada to address this unique challenge.

Learn more about our methodology

Labour Market Information Publications

Job Posting Analysis reports inform environmental job opportunities in Canada, the types of jobs being posted, and the occupations and skills that are in the greatest demand. With this information, our stakeholders can identify trends, gaps and opportunities for environmental workers and support the development and maintenance of a qualified and productive workforce.

Though informative on its own, this JPA report focuses on only one part of ECO Canada’s approach to understanding the job market for environmental workers. We also publish labour demand and labour supply outlook reports to estimate of the size of Canada’s environmental workforce by region and occupation, based in part on the EnviroShare derived from JPA.

Our complete report collection is available at eco.ca/research.

Career Resources

ECO Canada gathers and analyzes skills and labour market trends within the environmental workforce to provide up-to-date, relevant data and insights for policy, business and educational purposes. Our reports support our stakeholders in four key areas: (1) employers—plan and attract qualified candidates, (2) individuals—prepare for and build their environmental careers, (3) governments—develop programs and update policies, (4) educators and trainers—adapt their offerings to prepare the workforce that is and will be in demand.

Environmental employment in Canada is projected to grow by 8.1% from 2019 to 2029. This will result in a total of 50,100 new jobs. In addition to these new opportunities, an estimated 183,400 employees will gradually retire within the next decade. With nearly 30% of the current environmental workforce expected to vacate their mostly mid to senior-level roles, career progression opportunities for current and future workers will be created.

Our organization responds to labour market needs through the development of human resource tools for employers, the accreditation of post-secondary environmental programs, the delivery of employment programs for students and graduates, and the certification and training of environmental professionals.

Discover key resources ECO Canada has developed to support the sustainability of Canada’s environmental workforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Online job postings provide timely, detailed estimates of the number and distribution of job vacancies. Millions of jobs are posted online by employers in Canada. Statistics Canada’s Job Vacancy and Wage Survey data suggest at least 75% of all job vacancies are posted online every quarter. ECO Canada publishes Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports to describe in part, the state of Canada’s environmental labour market within a given period and over time.

1) What does online job posting data tell us about the labour market?

Online job postings provide timely, detailed estimates of the number and distribution of job vacancies. Millions of jobs are posted online by employers in Canada. Statistics Canada’s Job Vacancy and Wage Survey data suggest at least 75% of all job vacancies are posted online every quarter. ECO Canada publishes Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports to describe the state of Canada’s environmental labour market within a given period and over time.

2) How representative are online job postings of the Canadian environmental labour market?

Online job postings provide unique insights on employment opportunities and skills requirements sought by employers. However, some caution is required when interpreting job posting data. Online job postings are often skewed towards professional and service sector occupations and may underrepresent trades and other manual labour professions.

3) What will I learn from ECO Canada’s JPA reports?

The JPA report is a resource for those interested in understanding environmental job opportunities in Canada, the types of jobs being posted, and the occupations and skills that are in the greatest demand. With this information, our stakeholders can identify trends, gaps and opportunities for environmental workers and support the development and maintenance of a qualified and productive workforce. ECO Canada aims to help government, academia, environmental employers and workers benchmark and analyse trends in the environmental job market and assess current and future workforce needs.

4) How often is the JPA report updated?

ECO Canada updates job posting data every four months (February, April, July and October), or on a quarterly basis, and reflect the environmental ads for the previous period. Information presented in the report spotlights the distribution of job vacancies across Canada and highlights national and regional trends for industries, occupations and specializations that compose the environmental workforce.

5) Where does job posting data come from?

Our research uses a dataset compiled by Gartner TalentNeuron, which includes job ads from sources such as Monster.ca, the Canada Job Bank, Emploi-Québec, WorkBC, BCJobs.ca, JobServe, ECO Job Board, as well as the job boards of individual companies.

The TalentNeuron dataset includes information such as the full text of the job description (in French or English), job type (full-time versus part-time), location, level of desired education, and additional skills or certifications required for the position. TalentNeuron analyzes posting data to identify unique positions by filtering out duplications across multiple sites. If key components of information are missing, these data were not included in the analysis.

ECO Canada job posting analysis origins

6) What is an environmental worker?

ECO Canada describes an environmental worker as those employed within environmental goods and services companies regardless of the occupation and those with specialized environmental competencies regardless of the industry employer.

ECO Canada environmental job classification

7) What is NOC?

The National Occupational Classification (NOC) is Canada’s standard for describing occupations. Both core environmental and environmental goods and services sector employment are spread across industries and occupations and do not align precisely with traditional taxonomies such as NOC.

ECO Canada maps environmental job ads to each NOC using the information provided by employers for vacancies such as job title, main duties and educational requirements. With this approach, ECO Canada can analyze the demand and supply for the workforce, which would otherwise be unavailable.

8) What is an EnviroShare?

ECO Canada coined the term EnviroShare to present the proportion of environmental job ads as a percentage of total online job ads. The EnviroShare method accounts for shifts in occupational and geographical distribution to permit a more granular approach to analyzing job vacancies in Canada.

While an occupation might rank high in the number of environmental job ads, its EnviroShare might be higher or lower compared to the national average. Determining the number of online job ads that are classified as environmental is one measure of the JPA. Analyzing the occupations by their EnviroShare presents a different perspective.

9) What is a Specialization?

ECO Canada’s sub-sector model segments the workforce into areas related to protecting, managing and sustaining the environment. Environmental employment involves the performance of activities that seek to manage sustainable use of resources, assess or minimize environmental impacts, and maintain or restore ecological integrity of the environment.

These activities relate to planning, implementing and managing environmental initiatives, programs, products or services, and developing and disseminating environmental knowledge and awareness. In practice, most environmental professionals specialize within more than one of the 14 diverse sub-sectors. ECO Canada develops National Occupational Standards for each of these environmental specializations and has defined 332 technical competencies to guide career development.

NOS specializations eco canada

Comments and Feedback

Research is ongoing at ECO Canada and reports are routinely published to provide timely, relevant and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. Please consider completing a 5 minute survey to inform future Job Posting Analysis reports.

Take the survey

We welcome comments and discussion of all our LMI reports. Contact research@eco.ca

+ JPA Report

Job Posting Analysis: Data in real time

At ECO Canada, we are always looking for ways to deepen our understanding of the environmental job market and to improve the value of our reporting. Our Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports present a snapshot of online recruitment activity levels and trends for Canadian environmental roles. ECO Canada has developed an interactive platform to showcase the types and quantities of environmental job openings being advertised, scraped and reported online every day. Job posting data are updated every 4 months to provide yearly and quarterly insights by region, occupation and environmental specialization.

Strong Environmental Hiring Activity Across Canada in Q3 2020

From July to September (Q3) of this year, over 850,000 unique job ads were advertised online in Canada. Of this, close to 35,000 were for environmental roles – representing a 4.0% EnviroShare (proportion of environmental job ads to all job ads) for job vacancies in the environmental sector. Provincial lockdown protocols were eased as the total number of active COVID-19 cases decreased across the country and many businesses were able to begin operating under new provisions.

The number of Canadian environmental job ads increased by almost 10,000 compared to the previous quarter. This comes as positive news while employers and workers try to recover from the residual effects of the economic shutdown. Ontario employers posted the largest number of online environmental job ads, followed by Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta. However, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut all had an EnviroShare larger than the national average of 4.0%, at 23.5%, 23.7%, and 25.0%, respectively.

Civil engineers continue to be the top occupational group advertising for environmental workers in Canada, with 2,601 vacant positions in Q3, despite a decrease of 489 environmental job ads from the same quarter in 2019. Consistent with our labour demand findings, Natural and applied sciences and related occupations, Management occupations and Business, finance and administration occupations make up the top three occupational categories, comprising 21,963 of all environmental job ads in Q3.

Environmental workers are needed in every region and across most occupations. Environmental job ads have further identified that the key specializations needed from July to September were sustainability, energy and natural resource management.

*Interactive Spotlight Report may take a moment to load

Environmental Job Ads Indicate Uneven Recovery Across Canadian Regions

Prior to the pandemic, an average increase of 2,250 environmental job ads were posted each quarter and environmental job vacancies appeared to be increasing across the sector. Despite this trend, the total number of job ads decreased by almost 250,000 nationally, 18,500 were environmental from April to June (Q2). This quarter brings some much needed optimism, as the number of environmental job ads shows a trend towards economic recovery and the EnviroShare begins to stabilize at a rate that is comparable to pre-COVID levels.

Nationally, the number of environmental job ads in Q3 2020 decreased by 4,000 from the same time last year. However, this same comparison by EnviroShare reveals that the number of online job ads has proportionally increased by 0.3 percentage points, demonstrating relatively more job vacancies across environmental positions. Provinces and territories have been differentially impacted, with some regions experiencing more positive outlooks than others.

*Interactive Trends Report may take a moment to load

A Look Ahead

As we move towards the end of the calendar year, the second wave of COVID-19 may continue to influence environmental job vacancies across the country. As organizations try to navigate these uncertain times, we anticipate an overall reduction in the total number of environmental job ads posted in Canada, comparable to trends observed back in April through June (Q2) of this year.

The Government of Canada is actively working to provide economic tools to environmental businesses and workers. Recent investment in clean technologies, orphan well cleanup, and initiatives focused on conserving lands, waters and ecosystems demonstrate promise for the sector. Further, additional funding has been reallocated to provide job-training support to workers in sectors that have been hit hardest by current market trends and assist them in transitioning to sustainable employment in other fields, such as environmental work.

ECO Canada will continue to actively monitor job posting data to provide timely, relevant and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. Check back in February 2021 for updated information on environmental job vacancies.

governmemt of canada logo
Funded by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Initiatives Program
The opinions and interpretations in this publication are ECO Canada’s and do not necessarily reflect those held by the Government of Canada

+ Methodology

With at least 75% of job vacancies in Canada advertised on the web, online job posting data have emerged as a useful indicator of hiring needs and trends. Millions of jobs are posted online daily by employers in Canada, providing an opportunity for researchers to study the state of the job market in real time.

ECO Canada gathers and analyzes trends within the green economy to provide up-to-date, relevant, and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. One approach to guide decision making within organizations and individuals is to analyze the number of environmental jobs advertised online. Our Job Posting Analysis (JPA) presents a snapshot of online recruitment activity and trends for Canadian environmental workers. Data and insights include numbers of environmental online job ads by region, occupation and environmental specialization, and the proportion of all online job ads that represent environmental work across the country over time.

Canada’s environmental workforce is spread throughout industries and occupations. Because of this, it is not possible to directly gather data on the environmental workers using standard employment data classifications, such as the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system. ECO Canada has developed an approach to analyze environmental job vacancies in Canada to address this unique challenge.

Learn more about our methodology

Labour Market Information Publications

Job Posting Analysis reports inform environmental job opportunities in Canada, the types of jobs being posted, and the occupations and skills that are in the greatest demand. With this information, our stakeholders can identify trends, gaps and opportunities for environmental workers and support the development and maintenance of a qualified and productive workforce.

Though informative on its own, this JPA report focuses on only one part of ECO Canada’s approach to understanding the job market for environmental workers. We also publish labour demand and labour supply outlook reports to estimate of the size of Canada’s environmental workforce by region and occupation, based in part on the EnviroShare derived from JPA.

Our complete report collection is available at eco.ca/research.

+ Career Resources

Career Resources

ECO Canada gathers and analyzes skills and labour market trends within the environmental workforce to provide up-to-date, relevant data and insights for policy, business and educational purposes. Our reports support our stakeholders in four key areas: (1) employers—plan and attract qualified candidates, (2) individuals—prepare for and build their environmental careers, (3) governments—develop programs and update policies, (4) educators and trainers—adapt their offerings to prepare the workforce that is and will be in demand.

Environmental employment in Canada is projected to grow by 8.1% from 2019 to 2029. This will result in a total of 50,100 new jobs. In addition to these new opportunities, an estimated 183,400 employees will gradually retire within the next decade. With nearly 30% of the current environmental workforce expected to vacate their mostly mid to senior-level roles, career progression opportunities for current and future workers will be created.

Our organization responds to labour market needs through the development of human resource tools for employers, the accreditation of post-secondary environmental programs, the delivery of employment programs for students and graduates, and the certification and training of environmental professionals.

Discover key resources ECO Canada has developed to support the sustainability of Canada’s environmental workforce.

+ FAQs and Feedback

Frequently Asked Questions

Online job postings provide timely, detailed estimates of the number and distribution of job vacancies. Millions of jobs are posted online by employers in Canada. Statistics Canada’s Job Vacancy and Wage Survey data suggest at least 75% of all job vacancies are posted online every quarter. ECO Canada publishes Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports to describe in part, the state of Canada’s environmental labour market within a given period and over time.

1) What does online job posting data tell us about the labour market?

Online job postings provide timely, detailed estimates of the number and distribution of job vacancies. Millions of jobs are posted online by employers in Canada. Statistics Canada’s Job Vacancy and Wage Survey data suggest at least 75% of all job vacancies are posted online every quarter. ECO Canada publishes Job Posting Analysis (JPA) reports to describe the state of Canada’s environmental labour market within a given period and over time.

2) How representative are online job postings of the Canadian environmental labour market?

Online job postings provide unique insights on employment opportunities and skills requirements sought by employers. However, some caution is required when interpreting job posting data. Online job postings are often skewed towards professional and service sector occupations and may underrepresent trades and other manual labour professions.

3) What will I learn from ECO Canada’s JPA reports?

The JPA report is a resource for those interested in understanding environmental job opportunities in Canada, the types of jobs being posted, and the occupations and skills that are in the greatest demand. With this information, our stakeholders can identify trends, gaps and opportunities for environmental workers and support the development and maintenance of a qualified and productive workforce. ECO Canada aims to help government, academia, environmental employers and workers benchmark and analyse trends in the environmental job market and assess current and future workforce needs.

4) How often is the JPA report updated?

ECO Canada updates job posting data every four months (February, April, July and October), or on a quarterly basis, and reflect the environmental ads for the previous period. Information presented in the report spotlights the distribution of job vacancies across Canada and highlights national and regional trends for industries, occupations and specializations that compose the environmental workforce.

5) Where does job posting data come from?

Our research uses a dataset compiled by Gartner TalentNeuron, which includes job ads from sources such as Monster.ca, the Canada Job Bank, Emploi-Québec, WorkBC, BCJobs.ca, JobServe, ECO Job Board, as well as the job boards of individual companies.

The TalentNeuron dataset includes information such as the full text of the job description (in French or English), job type (full-time versus part-time), location, level of desired education, and additional skills or certifications required for the position. TalentNeuron analyzes posting data to identify unique positions by filtering out duplications across multiple sites. If key components of information are missing, these data were not included in the analysis.

ECO Canada job posting analysis origins

6) What is an environmental worker?

ECO Canada describes an environmental worker as those employed within environmental goods and services companies regardless of the occupation and those with specialized environmental competencies regardless of the industry employer.

ECO Canada environmental job classification

7) What is NOC?

The National Occupational Classification (NOC) is Canada’s standard for describing occupations. Both core environmental and environmental goods and services sector employment are spread across industries and occupations and do not align precisely with traditional taxonomies such as NOC.

ECO Canada maps environmental job ads to each NOC using the information provided by employers for vacancies such as job title, main duties and educational requirements. With this approach, ECO Canada can analyze the demand and supply for the workforce, which would otherwise be unavailable.

8) What is an EnviroShare?

ECO Canada coined the term EnviroShare to present the proportion of environmental job ads as a percentage of total online job ads. The EnviroShare method accounts for shifts in occupational and geographical distribution to permit a more granular approach to analyzing job vacancies in Canada.

While an occupation might rank high in the number of environmental job ads, its EnviroShare might be higher or lower compared to the national average. Determining the number of online job ads that are classified as environmental is one measure of the JPA. Analyzing the occupations by their EnviroShare presents a different perspective.

9) What is a Specialization?

ECO Canada’s sub-sector model segments the workforce into areas related to protecting, managing and sustaining the environment. Environmental employment involves the performance of activities that seek to manage sustainable use of resources, assess or minimize environmental impacts, and maintain or restore ecological integrity of the environment.

These activities relate to planning, implementing and managing environmental initiatives, programs, products or services, and developing and disseminating environmental knowledge and awareness. In practice, most environmental professionals specialize within more than one of the 14 diverse sub-sectors. ECO Canada develops National Occupational Standards for each of these environmental specializations and has defined 332 technical competencies to guide career development.

NOS specializations eco canada

Comments and Feedback

Research is ongoing at ECO Canada and reports are routinely published to provide timely, relevant and credible information and insights on Canada’s environmental workforce. Please consider completing a 5 minute survey to inform future Job Posting Analysis reports.

Take the survey

We welcome comments and discussion of all our LMI reports. Contact research@eco.ca



1-800-890-1924 // info@eco.ca