NOC 2021 · 85111 · TEER 5
Oil and gas drilling, servicing and related labourers
Unit group 85111 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.
Check which category draws this code qualifies for
What this group covers
Oil and gas drilling, servicing and related labourers carry out a variety of general labouring duties and operate equipment to assist in the drilling and servicing of oil and gas wells. This unit group also includes labourers who assist in geophysical prospecting for oil and gas. They are employed by drilling and well servicing contractors and by petroleum producing companies.
Example job titles
As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.
- floorhand - offshore drilling rig
- floorhand - oil and gas drilling
- floorhand - service rig
- floorman/woman - offshore drilling rig
- floorman/woman - oil and gas drilling
- gravity prospecting observer helper
- leasehand
- leasehand - oil and gas drilling
- observer helper - gravity prospecting
- observer helper - seismic prospecting
- oil field labourer
- oil well cementer helper
- perforator helper - oil field services
- perforator loader helper - oil field services
- reeled tubing helper - oil field services
- roughneck
- roughneck - offshore drilling rig
- roughneck - oil and gas drilling
- roustabout
- roustabout - offshore drilling rig
- roustabout - oil and gas drilling
- seismic GPS rover
- seismic line cutter
- seismic prospecting observer helper
- seismic survey helper
- service rig helper
- service rig helper - oil field services
- service rig operator helper
- service rig roughneck - oil field services
- shakerhand
- shakerhand - oil and gas drilling
- shooter - seismograph
- shooter helper - seismic prospecting
- slasher - oil and gas
- slasher - oil field services
- swamper - oil and gas
- swamper - oil field services
- tubing helper - oil field services
- vibrator operator - seismic prospecting
- well puller helper - oil field services
- well treatment helper
- well treatment helper - oil field services
- wireline helper
- wireline helper - oil field services
What it pays, and where it is hiring
Job Bank publishes a wage estimate and a three-year employment outlook for each occupation, region by region. Both are below as published — where an estimate is missing from the source it is missing here too, because the alternative is inventing one.
Across Canada
$31.00 an hour
Low $21.52, high $39.50
Where it pays most
- Southwest · Manitoba$38.00
- Regina--Moose Mountain · Saskatchewan$37.00
- Calgary · Alberta$36.57
- Lower Mainland · British Columbia$36.00
- Thompson--Okanagan · British Columbia$35.03
Economic regions only. A province’s figure is an average over the regions inside it, so including one would rank a province above its own best region and read as a finding.
By province and territory
| Where | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $28.00 | $20.00 – $40.00 | Limited |
| Prince Edward Island | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nova Scotia | $33.00 | $22.00 – $41.00 | Undetermined |
| New Brunswick | $25.00 | $19.00 – $38.00 | Undetermined |
| Quebec | $23.00 | $18.00 – $31.50 | Undetermined |
| Ontario | $34.00 | $20.50 – $40.60 | Undetermined |
| Manitoba | $38.00 | $26.50 – $40.00 | Undetermined |
| Saskatchewan | $34.00 | $24.00 – $40.00 | Moderate |
| Alberta | $31.86 | $23.00 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| British Columbia | $32.00 | $25.00 – $40.00 | Limited |
| Yukon Territory | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Northwest Territories | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nunavut | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
By economic region
The 22 economic regions where Job Bank publishes a wage or a rated outlook, of 72.
| Where | Province | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalon Peninsula | Newfoundland and Labrador | $32.50 | $23.50 – $50.00 | Limited |
| Notre Dame--Central Bonavista Bay | Newfoundland and Labrador | $28.00 | $23.50 – $38.00 | Undetermined |
| Cape Breton | Nova Scotia | $35.00 | $21.00 – $41.00 | Undetermined |
| Montérégie | Quebec | $23.55 | $18.00 – $30.00 | Undetermined |
| Montréal | Quebec | $22.18 | $17.50 – $30.75 | Undetermined |
| Southwest | Manitoba | $38.00 | $28.00 – $40.00 | Undetermined |
| Regina--Moose Mountain | Saskatchewan | $37.00 | $25.00 – $41.00 | Moderate |
| Swift Current--Moose Jaw | Saskatchewan | $35.00 | $24.00 – $40.00 | Moderate |
| Saskatoon--Biggar | Saskatchewan | $35.00 | $24.00 – $40.00 | Moderate |
| Prince Albert | Saskatchewan | $30.00 | $21.20 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| Northern | Saskatchewan | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Lethbridge--Medicine Hat | Alberta | $32.00 | $22.00 – $39.90 | Moderate |
| Camrose--Drumheller | Alberta | $31.00 | $23.00 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| Calgary | Alberta | $36.57 | $22.00 – $40.00 | Moderate |
| Banff--Jasper--Rocky Mountain House | Alberta | $28.00 | $23.00 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| Red Deer | Alberta | $32.02 | $24.00 – $39.95 | Moderate |
| Edmonton | Alberta | $32.50 | $23.50 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| Athabasca--Grande Prairie--Peace River | Alberta | $31.86 | $23.00 – $39.50 | Moderate |
| Wood Buffalo--Cold Lake | Alberta | $30.00 | $24.00 – $38.87 | Moderate |
| Lower Mainland | British Columbia | $36.00 | $26.00 – $40.50 | Undetermined |
| Thompson--Okanagan | British Columbia | $35.03 | $28.00 – $39.65 | Undetermined |
| Northeast | British Columbia | $28.00 | $24.00 – $35.00 | Limited |
Job Bank rates employment prospects for each occupation in each economic region from very good to very limited over 2025–2027, and says “undetermined” where it has not got enough to rate. It is an assessment of prospects, not a count of vacancies.
The estimates on this page come from Employment Insurance Survey Data (2023-2024).
Job Bank publishes an estimate for 24,364 of the 44,376 occupation-and-place pairs in this release. The rest are suppressed rather than modelled, and appear here as not published.
Wage estimates from the 2025 Wages release, revised 19 November 2025; employment outlooks from 2025-2027 Employment Outlooks - NOC 2021, released 8 December 2025. Both are updated annually. Estimates for different regions come from different surveys, so comparing two regions is exactly as sound as Job Bank’s own regional comparison and no more.
Source: Statistics Canada — National Occupational Classification 2021 V1.0; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wages; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank 3-year employment outlooks. Data current as of 13 August 2026. NOC 2021 Version 1.0. The classification is versioned rather than dated — IRCC moved to it in November 2022, and a new version would be a new classification rather than an update.