A quarter of private jobs linked to nickel in New Caledonia
The nickel sector represents a quarter of salaried jobs in the private sector in New Caledonia, confirming the weight of this industry in the local economy, revealed a study by Isee.
The sector has about twenty companies of unequal sizes that extract ore for export or resale on site, three of which are also metallurgists and have world-class factories.
According to the survey just published by the Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Isee), these companies employed 5,960 people in 2019, representing 9% of private salaried employment. A subsidiary of the French group Eramet, Société Le Nickel (SLN) retains its position as the territory's leading employer.
If we add indirect jobs (5,790) and induced jobs (3,840), the mining industry accounts for 24% of total private employees in New Caledonia, or 15,590 jobs. "The results of this study confirm the importance of the knock-on effects of nickel on the Caledonian economy," notes Isee. In 2019, the gross remuneration of employees in the nickel sector totaled 32 billion CFP (267 million euros), with a monthly net average of 394,000 CFP (3,300 euros), a third higher than the rest of the private sector. From local suppliers and subcontractors, the nickel industry made 118 billion CFP (983 million euros) of purchases in 2019, mainly attributable to metallurgists - Eramet, Glencore and Prony Resources (ex-Vale).
More than half (54%) of employees in the sector are of Kanak origin, but the vast majority are manual workers. However, Isee observes that “two out of 10 nickel executives are Kanak”, against only “one in 10 in the entire labor market”.
New Caledonia is home to around 11% of the world's reserves of nickel, an essential mineral for the manufacture of stainless steel and for the new market for electric vehicle batteries. It represents 90% of Caillou's exports and 6% of GDP.