NOC 2021 · 21101 · TEER 1

Chemists

Unit group 21101 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.

Express Entry draws from this TEER level.

Check which category draws this code qualifies for

What this group covers

Chemists conduct research and analysis in support of industrial operations, product and process development, quality control, environmental control, medical diagnosis and treatment, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other applications. They also conduct theoretical, experimental and applied research into basic chemical and biochemical processes to create or synthesize new products and processes. They are employed in research, development and quality control laboratories; chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries; mineral, metal and pulp and paper industries; and a wide variety of manufacturing, utility, health, educational and government establishments.

Example job titles

As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.

agricultural chemist
agrochemist
analytical biochemist
analytical chemist
atmospheric chemist
bioanalytical chemist
biochemist
biochemistry research scientist
biological chemist
chemical spectroscopist
chemist
chemist - biomolecular assembly
chemistry research scientist
chemistry researcher
clinical chemist
coatings chemist
control chemist
dairy chemist
detergent chemist
dye chemist
electrochemist
environmental chemist
enzyme chemist
fermentologist
food chemist
forensic chemist
glass chemist
hydrochemist
industrial chemist
inorganic chemist
laboratory chemist
leather chemist
medical biochemist
medical chemist
medicinal chemist
nanochemist
nuclear chemist
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopist
nutritional chemist
oceanographic chemist
optical spectroscopist
organic chemist
organic mass spectrometrist
organometallic chemist
petroleum chemist
pharmaceutical chemist
pharmacological chemist
physical chemist
physical research chemist
physiological chemist
plastics and resins chemist
polymer chemist
process control chemist
protective coatings chemist
protein chemist
quality control chemist
research chemist
soil chemist
standards chemist
textile chemist
theoretical chemist
water chemist
water purification chemist
wood chemist

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.

$38.46 an hour

Low $24.00, high $65.93

Where it pays most

Banff--Jasper--Rocky Mountain House · Alberta$45.74
Avalon Peninsula · Newfoundland and Labrador$45.46
Edmonton · Alberta$44.91
Outaouais · Quebec$44.85
Ottawa · Ontario$44.27

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

Median wage and three-year employment outlook for this occupation, by province and territory.
Where	Median hourly	Low to high	Outlook 2025–2027
Newfoundland and Labrador	$43.69	$29.36 – $70.91	Undetermined
Prince Edward Island	$36.41	$22.00 – $51.79	Good
Nova Scotia	$39.23	$26.52 – $56.76	Moderate
New Brunswick	$36.83	$25.30 – $56.10	Undetermined
Quebec	$38.88	$24.94 – $60.75	Moderate
Ontario	$39.49	$27.09 – $66.67	Moderate
Manitoba	$39.40	$27.22 – $67.01	Moderate
Saskatchewan	$42.97	$27.86 – $72.14	Good
Alberta	$43.74	$27.00 – $68.19	Moderate
British Columbia	$39.95	$26.69 – $59.34	Moderate
Yukon Territory	Not published	Not published	Undetermined
Northwest Territories	Not published	Not published	Undetermined
Nunavut	Not published	Not published	Undetermined

By economic region

The 35 economic regions where Job Bank publishes a wage or a rated outlook, of 72.

Median wage and three-year employment outlook for this occupation, by economic region.
Where	Province	Median hourly	Low to high	Outlook 2025–2027
Avalon Peninsula	Newfoundland and Labrador	$45.46	$32.69 – $72.06	Undetermined
Annapolis Valley	Nova Scotia	$39.11	$25.62 – $55.33	Undetermined
Halifax	Nova Scotia	$40.26	$27.93 – $59.28	Moderate
Moncton--Richibucto	New Brunswick	$36.77	$25.24 – $55.78	Undetermined
Fredericton--Oromocto	New Brunswick	$36.70	$26.43 – $54.84	Undetermined
Capitale-Nationale	Quebec	$40.33	$26.85 – $60.50	Moderate
Chaudière-Appalaches	Quebec	$40.71	$28.71 – $59.35	Moderate
Estrie	Quebec	$43.91	$29.78 – $63.55	Moderate
Centre-du-Québec	Quebec	$39.85	$29.03 – $56.41	Undetermined
Montérégie	Quebec	$40.65	$27.27 – $56.69	Moderate
Montréal	Quebec	$38.69	$25.32 – $63.65	Moderate
Laval	Quebec	$41.24	$28.08 – $59.89	Moderate
Lanaudière	Quebec	$40.81	$29.92 – $60.97	Moderate
Laurentides	Quebec	$41.50	$28.56 – $61.59	Good
Outaouais	Quebec	$44.85	$33.04 – $64.49	Moderate
Abitibi-Témiscamingue	Quebec	$41.51	$29.01 – $66.59	Moderate
Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean	Quebec	$40.87	$25.87 – $69.03	Undetermined
Ottawa	Ontario	$44.27	$31.87 – $66.87	Limited
Kingston--Pembroke	Ontario	$44.02	$31.77 – $65.91	Moderate
Muskoka--Kawarthas	Ontario	$42.35	$29.97 – $62.64	Undetermined
Toronto	Ontario	$38.46	$28.00 – $65.93	Moderate
Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie	Ontario	$38.97	$27.22 – $55.82	Moderate
Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula	Ontario	$39.49	$27.09 – $66.67	Moderate
London	Ontario	$40.78	$27.64 – $61.33	Moderate
Windsor--Sarnia	Ontario	Not published	Not published	Moderate
Northeast	Ontario	$38.70	$27.02 – $60.80	Undetermined
Winnipeg	Manitoba	$38.88	$27.46 – $64.47	Limited
Saskatoon--Biggar	Saskatchewan	$42.32	$27.19 – $63.25	Undetermined
Lethbridge--Medicine Hat	Alberta	$43.37	$29.58 – $66.97	Undetermined
Calgary	Alberta	$41.55	$27.29 – $63.85	Moderate
Banff--Jasper--Rocky Mountain House	Alberta	$45.74	$30.11 – $70.78	Undetermined
Edmonton	Alberta	$44.91	$29.62 – $69.99	Moderate
Vancouver Island and Coast	British Columbia	$39.79	$29.08 – $62.06	Undetermined
Lower Mainland	British Columbia	$40.03	$27.06 – $72.70	Moderate
Thompson--Okanagan	British Columbia	$39.02	$28.13 – $59.98	Undetermined

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 Labour Force Survey (2023-2024) · Small Area Estimation (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.