Lacklustre interest among youth a big problem for mining

As a career choice, mining has seen better times.

Over the last several years, the focus of young people has drifted away from mining as they contemplate their careers and enter post-secondary education.

Mining, in fact, ranked last in a list of nine career sectors in an Abacus Data poll conducted in 2021 with the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR).

"We had Abacus Data poll 3,000 youth across the country on perceptions of work in different sectors," said Ryan Montpellier, executive director of MiHR. "Only 11% of youth polled identified that they would be likely to work in the mining industry. We struggle at a base layer trying to attract youth to careers in the sector."

The poll also found that 70% of youth polled "definitely" or "probably would not" consider pursuing mining. Health care, high tech and arts and culture were the top three most desirable sectors on the list.