NOC 2021 · 21320 · TEER 1
Chemical engineers
Unit group 21320 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.
Check which category draws this code qualifies for
What this group covers
Chemical engineers research, design, and develop chemical processes and equipment, oversee the operation and maintenance of industrial chemical, plastics, pharmaceutical, resource, pulp and paper, and food processing plants and perform duties related to chemical quality control, environmental protection and biochemical or biotechnical engineering. They are employed in a wide range of manufacturing and processing industries, consulting firms, government, research and educational institutions.
Example job titles
As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.
- adhesives engineer
- biochemical and biotechnical engineer
- biochemical development engineer
- biochemical engineer
- biotechnical engineer
- biotechnology engineer
- chemical coating engineer
- chemical engineer
- chemical process control engineer
- chemical process engineer
- chemical project engineer
- chief chemical engineer
- chief process engineer
- design and development chemical engineer
- electrochemical engineer
- environmental chemical engineer
- explosives engineer
- fuels engineer
- industrial hygiene engineer
- industrial waste treatment engineer
- liquid fuels engineer
- petrochemical engineer
- petroleum refinery process engineer
- pipeline transport engineer
- plastics engineer
- polymer engineer
- production chemical engineer
- pulp and paper chemical engineer
- pulp and paper engineer
- refinery engineer
- research chemical engineer
- waste treatment engineer
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
$51.92 an hour
Low $27.45, high $76.92
Where it pays most
- Red Deer · Alberta$65.41
- Wood Buffalo--Cold Lake · Alberta$64.90
- Calgary · Alberta$62.50
- Edmonton · Alberta$61.45
- Avalon Peninsula · Newfoundland and Labrador$58.39
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 | $56.50 | $38.44 – $72.17 | Undetermined |
| Prince Edward Island | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nova Scotia | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| New Brunswick | $52.45 | $33.35 – $72.52 | Undetermined |
| Quebec | $44.31 | $25.00 – $65.38 | Limited |
| Ontario | $51.28 | $28.85 – $72.12 | Limited |
| Manitoba | $40.32 | $27.67 – $60.24 | Undetermined |
| Saskatchewan | $46.43 | $27.92 – $81.39 | Undetermined |
| Alberta | $64.90 | $44.23 – $118.79 | Limited |
| British Columbia | $53.33 | $25.64 – $70.00 | 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.
| Where | Province | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalon Peninsula | Newfoundland and Labrador | $58.39 | $44.47 – $84.68 | Undetermined |
| Saint John--St. Stephen | New Brunswick | $54.04 | $37.88 – $78.52 | Undetermined |
| Fredericton--Oromocto | New Brunswick | $48.10 | $33.78 – $68.87 | Undetermined |
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | Quebec | $43.93 | $31.05 – $60.66 | Limited |
| Capitale-Nationale | Quebec | $48.10 | $34.11 – $72.25 | Moderate |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | Quebec | $44.74 | $30.83 – $65.59 | Limited |
| Estrie | Quebec | $46.23 | $33.00 – $70.98 | Limited |
| Centre-du-Québec | Quebec | $44.06 | $31.78 – $60.40 | Limited |
| Montérégie | Quebec | $48.63 | $33.45 – $71.21 | Limited |
| Montréal | Quebec | $43.92 | $29.58 – $63.68 | Limited |
| Laval | Quebec | $46.90 | $32.22 – $70.18 | Limited |
| Lanaudière | Quebec | $50.86 | $37.41 – $73.78 | Undetermined |
| Laurentides | Quebec | $46.57 | $32.46 – $67.87 | Limited |
| Outaouais | Quebec | $52.61 | $35.84 – $76.63 | Limited |
| Mauricie | Quebec | $49.14 | $34.13 – $69.78 | Undetermined |
| Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean | Quebec | $51.50 | $32.56 – $82.21 | Limited |
| Ottawa | Ontario | $47.53 | $33.54 – $72.96 | Limited |
| Kingston--Pembroke | Ontario | $48.36 | $33.83 – $72.64 | Limited |
| Toronto | Ontario | $43.59 | $25.64 – $64.42 | Moderate |
| Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie | Ontario | $47.01 | $32.19 – $70.71 | Limited |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | Ontario | $46.61 | $31.91 – $72.81 | Limited |
| London | Ontario | $47.90 | $31.99 – $73.91 | Undetermined |
| Windsor--Sarnia | Ontario | $54.00 | $43.00 – $78.20 | Moderate |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | Ontario | $53.19 | $37.65 – $84.54 | Undetermined |
| Northeast | Ontario | $48.86 | $33.35 – $78.54 | Limited |
| Winnipeg | Manitoba | $40.89 | $28.02 – $62.41 | Undetermined |
| Saskatoon--Biggar | Saskatchewan | $45.63 | $29.12 – $68.30 | Undetermined |
| Lethbridge--Medicine Hat | Alberta | $55.14 | $35.68 – $84.12 | Undetermined |
| Calgary | Alberta | $62.50 | $44.23 – $88.03 | Limited |
| Red Deer | Alberta | $65.41 | $43.29 – $101.00 | Undetermined |
| Edmonton | Alberta | $61.45 | $36.52 – $93.12 | Limited |
| Wood Buffalo--Cold Lake | Alberta | $64.90 | $44.23 – $118.79 | Limited |
| Lower Mainland | British Columbia | $53.33 | $22.00 – $58.17 | Moderate |
| Thompson--Okanagan | British Columbia | $55.32 | $33.92 – $85.98 | Moderate |
| Kootenay | British Columbia | $54.02 | $38.40 – $90.52 | Moderate |
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.