Engineering services industry, 2016

Released: 2018-03-27

Operating revenue for the engineering services industry was $27.7 billion in 2016, down 7.6% from 2015. During the same period, operating expenses decreased 5.6% to $25.7 billion, a drop similar to 2015. This resulted in an operating profit margin of 7.1%, compared with 9.0% in 2015.

In 2016, engineering firms in Alberta generated 30.8% of the industry operating revenue, followed by firms in Ontario (29.3%), Quebec (16.2%) and British Columbia (14.2%). The other provinces and territories generated the remaining 9.5% of the operating revenue.

Salaries, wages, commissions and benefits accounted for 47.3% ($12.2 billion) of operating expenses in engineering services in 2016. The cost of goods sold (13.4%) remained at 2015 levels.

In 2016, petroleum and petrochemical engineering projects remained the largest source of sales for engineering firms (14.7%), followed by commercial, public and institutional building projects (13.9%). Transportation engineering projects rounded out the top three, increasing their relative share of sales from 9.4% in 2015 to 12.7% in 2016. In contrast, the share of sales of mining and metallurgical engineering projects (10.9%) declined for the second consecutive year.

Clients in the business sector generated 67.8% of sales in the engineering services industry, followed by governments, not-for-profit organizations and public institutions (21.2%), clients outside Canada (9.2%) and households (1.8%).

In 2016, sales outside Canada were as follows: United States (46.4%), Mexico (4.8%) and other countries (48.6%).

Contact information

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