Post: #4151

The death of the Alberta dream
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-d...rta-dream/

Great read.

Post: #4152

I work for an oil company in North Dakota and it is absolutely brutal here. Most of the laid off oil workers have left the state because they can't find work. Whats crazy is that as bad as last year was, this year will be much worse.

Post: #4153

(01-18-2016 08:14 PM)Oilrig Wrote:  I work for an oil company in North Dakota and it is absolutely brutal here. Most of the laid off oil workers have left the state because they can't find work. Whats crazy is that as bad as last year was, this year will be much worse.

How are the rents in North Dakota? Still brutal? A few companies I've invested in own some land up near the Bakken. Layoffs and more layoffs on the horizon.

Post: #4154

I live in Minot and you can find very cheap rent here. One of my friends works for an apartment company and she said they have 1 bedrooms for $350-500. In the oil towns like Williston and Watford city rent will still be higher than normal, but rent prices are dropping like crazy every month. You can find some good deals around here as property owners are desperate to fill their vacancies.

Post: #4155

Currently working in West Texas in an the industry as well, and even though the Permian is doing better than most of the other shale plays everybody is still hurting. What's everyone do here in the oilfields? I'm on the completions side (coiled tubing).

Post: #4156

What also bears mentioning is how a recession driven by oil prices could cause the housing bubble to pop in the Canadian real estate market.

CMHC has stress-tested the Canadian housing market, and their "Armageddon" scenario says that oil under $35/bbl for five years would bring unemployment to 12.5 % and cause a 26% correction in housing prices. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cmhc-low-oil-1.3345304

We're now under $30 and (for the most part) likely to fall further with no end in sight.

And it should also be mentioned that Canada's housing market is potentially overvalued by some 63%, and is the most overvalued housing market in the world.

Oil and real estate are the two biggest sectors of the Canadian economy.

One of them going is bad enough. Both would be catastrophic.

Post: #4157

Impaired loans would also impact the financial sector, which is about 20% of Canada's GDP.

Post: #4158

(01-19-2016 02:57 AM)Peregrine Wrote:  Impaired loans would also impact the financial sector, which is about 20% of Canada's GDP.

How bad do you think it's going to get? The Canadian economy in general, that is.

Post: #4159

I've definitely seen a slowdown of regular non shutdown work relating to oil contracts - even for standard maintenance. Being ticketed up definitely helps, but it's not the end all be all. A good work ethic is still necessary.
There are still plenty of job postings for now.

As for the housing market, it's not popping. The most overvalued markets are Toronto and Vancouver, and neither of them are really connected to Canadian economic reality. Those markets are based on international money, both cities attract a global clientele of property investors.

Calgary and Edmonton have already seen housing corrections, and the trend will continue until the slowdown bottoms out and prices start to either rise again, or costs cut drastically.

Best course of action if you're working in the industry, sit tight and get ticketed up. If you're a welder get that B-Pressure ticket. If you're a pipefitter get started on your welding apprenticeship, if you're an office kid start thinking about which designation you'll have completed, and so on.

Once a recovery starts taking place, the skilled workforce will recover, the non skilled (labourers, admins etc) will have a much tougher time. Most job postings I'm seeing already require far more than they did in the past.

Just as with the USA 2008 recession and subsequent recovery, the majority of new jobs created will be for college grads. They'll do fine over the course of the long term. Joe labourer on the other hand better get back to school for a trade or risk being frozen out of the job market long term.

Post: #4160

Quote:‘I’m done’: Alberta’s laid-off oil workers forced to abandon industry in worst downturn they’ve ever seen



CALGARY — For 36 years, Sue Jones rode out the ups and downs of Alberta’s oilpatch. But after she was laid off last March, she knew her days in the oil and gas industry were over.

“I’m done,” said Jones, 56, who worked in data management and document control before she was let go.

“I’m older. I’ve been laid off so many times in oil and gas.”

Great pay and plenty of jobs attracted thousands to the province, but as the decline in crude prices stretches on, some industry veterans are deciding they can no longer take the boom and bust roller-coaster.

Jones says this downturn is “the worst one” she’s seen, and figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada would appear to back her up. Alberta lost 19,600 jobs last year — the most since 1982.

After months of searching, Jones finally found a job last week working in the back office of a heat and power supply company in Calgary. She has taken a pay cut, but says she won’t be going back to the oilpatch.

Lynn Berry, a Calgary career counsellor who also runs a government-supported career boot camp, says more people need to start looking elsewhere.

“People just need to get out of this, ‘I need to find work in the oil and gas, and I need to make X number of dollars,’ because the reality of today’s economy, it might not happen and they need to figure out what they’re going to do next,” said Berry.

“If we’re feeling bad we tend to cocoon, and we tend to fall back on what we’ve done in the past, and what we’re saying now is that’s just not working.” said Berry. “If you’re just waiting until it comes back, then you’re wasting your time and your skills and your talent.”

Susan MacDonald, a registered psychologist and career counsellor, says the downturn is a great opportunity for people to look for a career that better suits them.

“When they get laid off they’re seeing it as an opportunity to say, ‘Maybe I should go and check things out,”‘ said MacDonald.

One of her clients in her late 20s left a career as an economist in the oil industry to go to nursing school. Another in his late 30s left an information technology career in the industry to go to school to become a doctor.



Curtis Buxton spent 17 years working in the oil and gas sector before losing his job last March as a project manager for oilfield services company Schlumberger.

Two weeks after getting laid off, Buxton was taking a solar industry course in B.C. and looking for work in the renewable energy sector. It took a few months, but a project manager position finally opened up at SkyFire Energy in Calgary.

Recruiters say many companies are hesitant to hire oil and gas workers because they’re concerned they will jump back to the industry when it recovers. But Buxton says he had already approached the company several times showing his interest.

“I was persistent and I showed that I wanted to enter the industry,” said Buxton.

Like most who leave the oil and gas industry, he has taken a pay cut, but he says it was the right move.

“Realizing this was something I was pretty sure was going to make me happy was also a strong motivator for taking that pay cut.”

Nathan Tomusange was laid off from a company manufacturing oil rig equipment in March last year.

To switch industries he went back to school for a supply management course. But he says after sending out dozens of resumes, he’s only had one call back from a potential employer, and that company eventually chose someone with more experience.

At 54 with three boys at home, he says he isn’t waiting around for his ideal job and has started looking into getting a taxi licence. But he’s also continuing with more courses, trying to figure out which industry will offer the most stability.

“We’re all wondering where the jobs are,” he said. “Where are they? What industries?”


Source: http://business.financialpost.com/news/e...=d85d-344e

Post: #4161

edmonton is fucking dead. Im stuck here and cant even get a fucking labouring job in the city.

Post: #4162

(01-27-2016 12:52 PM)alecks Wrote:  edmonton is fucking dead. Im stuck here and cant even get a fucking labouring job in the city.

You got any tickets/qualifications? (For privacy sake you don't need to answer here).

If you do have some letters beside your name, your best bet might be to start looking at BC, Ontario, or Saskatchewan for jobs. No guarantees but it's a start. Better than sitting for months on end with no work, shit can get depressing real quick.

Post: #4163

(01-27-2016 12:57 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 12:52 PM)alecks Wrote:  edmonton is fucking dead. Im stuck here and cant even get a fucking labouring job in the city.

You got any tickets/qualifications? (For privacy sake you don't need to answer here).

If you do have some letters beside your name, your best bet might be to start looking at BC, Ontario, or Saskatchewan for jobs. No guarantees but it's a start. Better than sitting for months on end with no work, shit can get depressing real quick.

Nope,nothing. I'm on a working holiday visa. I'm glad I can go back to Ireland. This place is not for me. SO glad I'm not from here,really what a shit hole edmonton is (ha I'm bitter now because im unemployed but I ain't the only one sayin it)

Post: #4164

Its going to be a crazy shut down season. This year will still be good for plenty of tradesmen. The Ironworkers can't fill their calls still.

Post: #4165

Edmonton is indeed a frozen Siberian shit hole at this time of the year, which is why I fuck off down south every winter.

Post: #4166

(01-28-2016 09:06 AM)scotian Wrote:  Edmonton is indeed a frozen Siberian shit hole at this time of the year, which is why I fuck off down south every winter.

+5 Yesterday, fuck that was a nice change.

Post: #4167

You guys are insane for living in Edmonton. I fuckin' hate it there.. Calgary is where it's at. 10 degrees or so today.

As for the job front, Calgary isn't doing any better. It's very slow and the competition for whatever jobs are out there is pretty fierce. People are starting to take whatever they can find to pay the bills. Lots of shady fly-by-night guys taking off without paying employees as well. Going to be giving my landlord notice that I'll be leaving shortly. No point in sticking around and waiting for things to get worse. I am extremely grateful for everything Alberta has taught me but it's time to split for now. Got my eyes on Vancouver, where things are a bit more steady for my trade.

Post: #4168

(01-28-2016 03:46 PM)rdvirus Wrote:  You guys are insane for living in Edmonton. I fuckin' hate it there.. Calgary is where it's at. 10 degrees or so today.

As for the job front, Calgary isn't doing any better. It's very slow and the competition for whatever jobs are out there is pretty fierce. People are starting to take whatever they can find to pay the bills. Lots of shady fly-by-night guys taking off without paying employees as well. Going to be giving my landlord notice that I'll be leaving shortly. No point in sticking around and waiting for things to get worse. I am extremely grateful for everything Alberta has taught me but it's time to split for now. Got my eyes on Vancouver, where things are a bit more steady for my trade.

This is what I've been preaching since I started this thread four years ago, get into a trade so when the shit hits the fan in Alberta, you can go elsewhere to find work. BC is the place to be, I just did a stint there and there's lots of work coming up at Site-C Dam, Van/Vic shipyards and up near Kitimat and other areas with LNG plants being built.

In Ontario, there's a ton of work coming up in the nuke plants, although it can be a lot of paperwork to get onto the sites, its good work: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/...ctors.html

There's other projects out there too and while Alberta has slowed down, there's still work there and the upcoming shutdown season will be a good one. As I've mentioned before, I don't personally know a single Alberta based tech or tradesmen who is looking for work right now.

Post: #4169

The downturn only really hit Alaska about 6 months ago, but it hit hard and fast. Everyone who still has a job here is on edge.

Post: #4170

Things really don't feel all that bad I'm fort Mac to be honest. The restaurants and bars are a bit slower than they used to be but a lot of that is because several new places opened up in 2014 that spread the business around. I only personally know a couple people who have been laid off, most just had their overtime/ salaries reduced. I'm hoping to jump out of my current engineering role and work the spring shutdown coming up to bring in some OT.

If I could do it all over again I'd have gone into the trades and become a welder. The only perk of engineering is the easy M-F hours, but honestly I think I'd rather work 7 months hard and take 5 off like you Scotian for the same 120-150k that i make working 12 months of regular hours.

I'm going to ask for a 4 month leave next winter to fuck off down south, but realistically I can probably only pull that off every 3--5 years being in my "professional" field. The winters here sure suck.

If the mining sector ever picks back up again I'll be looking to move on to metals mining in BC, or even south America. Gotta work on my Spanish for that possibility.

Overall though Alberta oil is a pretty awesome place to start off your career for the first 5 years. Get a lot of great experience and bank a few hundred thousand in savings before leapfrogging to the next phase of your life. Most of my classmates from engineering school are following the normal path.. Getting lame jobs in big cities making 60k, saving hardly any money, and will probably be married with a mortgage on an overpriced home shortly.

Post: #4171

Any of you guys still in E town planning on going to the meet up?

Post: #4172

Sorry for the dumb question, is crane operator considered a trade?

Post: #4173

(01-29-2016 04:27 AM)pitt Wrote:  Sorry for the dumb question, is crane operator considered a trade?

Yup, Youll have to take your class 3 i believe. With the air brakes. Youll end up apprenticing for a crane company driving trucks for them. Then one day theyll just throw you into a cherry picker working in a yard. Atleast thats how it was for all my operator buddies

Post: #4174

Don't know about the rest of the world but it's equally dire over here in the UK. Here is hoping for a cut in production and a slight price rise which "may" be the a slight light at the end of the tunnel. I am in it for the long run, so I am confident it will return (hopefully with a vengeance) just hoping that I can hang on.

As painful as it is, I think this particular downturn has taught me some really valuable lessons that if I can hold on, will pay dividends in the future.

Hope the rest of you are keeping your heads above water, keep on trucking!

Post: #4175

(01-29-2016 01:51 PM)JonboyUK Wrote:  Don't know about the rest of the world but it's equally dire over here in the UK. Here is hoping for a cut in production and a slight price rise which "may" be the a slight light at the end of the tunnel. I am in it for the long run, so I am confident it will return (hopefully with a vengeance) just hoping that I can hang on.

As painful as it is, I think this particular downturn has taught me some really valuable lessons that if I can hold on, will pay dividends in the future.

Hope the rest of you are keeping your heads above water, keep on trucking!

This has been a hard lesson and a wake up call to many people in the oil patch, you have to make your hay when the sun shines and save for a rainy day.