BuildForce Canada, a national construction organization, recently released this statistic in Construction Looking Forward. The document is a summary of the field’s projected growth and needs for the next eight years.

This projected number is somewhat less than last year, where the organization theorized that 319,000 workers would be needed. However, the Canadian Construction Association has stated that this does not mean the industry’s needs are any less dire.

The construction industry in Canada is expanding at a rapid pace thanks to a booming natural resources trade as well as increased needs from the country’s population as a whole. As Canadians retire in larger and larger numbers, finding qualified candidates to replace workers in important sectors has become increasingly difficult. This has the potential to lead to construction delays which have the potential to negatively impact a number of important economic sectors.

“If you have one or two or three major projects slightly delayed that can have a big impact,” said the association’s president. “We’re filling that need either domestically or through measures like the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.”