80% Of Oil Industry's Workforce Will Reach Retirement Age Within 10 Years - CNN

[hatrack]

HOUSTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The oil industry is on the edge of a huge labor crisis. 80% of its skilled workforce is expected to age out in the next ten years without eager, younger workers available to replace them.

"There's a perception the industry is old, dirty," said Pete Stark, vice president of industry relations for IHS, Cambridge Energy Research Associates' (CERA) parent company. "It's lost its sex appeal."

Plus, the industry suffers from a reputation of laying off workers during periods of low oil prices, as it did in the 1980s and 1990s. As a result of those layoffs, the sector is now scrambling to replace a huge number of skilled workers set to retire over the next decade.

EDIT

But oil industry executives concede that the industry must do more than simply rejuvenate its geriatric image, it also needs more young people to pursue studies that will lead to oil jobs. For example, the number of students studying petroleum engineering dropped to 1,700 in 2004, down from 11,000 in 1993, according to a paper from the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.

EDIT

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/13/news/companies/oilworker_shortage/?postversion=2008021411

[Deja Q]

1. Cheap oil = cheap wages

Are there people wanting to be interns for $50k/yr? (Which is probably cheap considering their annual profits...)

What's to study? Where to find oil? They taught how to find and collect oil in 5th grade (circa 1983). They had in mine.

Sorry to sound cynical. A part of me finds the industry tempting to get into...

[griffi94]

4. nothing cheap about the wages....

but it's field work not office intern stuff

[Deja Q]

6. A good way to get and stay fit, one would reckon...

I would do it in an instant...

I can only see lots of good - not all of which pay - in such a field.

[griffi94]

2. my father

is a vp at a pipeline construction company....they are having a major problems finding help....he just hired a friend of mine who has no experience in this field and the pay is 2500 a week to start....i was offered a temporary job starting at 2k a week.... to be raised to 3k a week if i stayed longer than 18 months....that doesn't include the 100 dollar a day per diem or the and does include a company truck...i turned it down...my friend starts may first.... my father says there just aren't any available workers

[Deja Q]

5. Holy fritos.

Would you send me contact information?

[griffi94]

9. lol...yeah the money is tempting

i won't take it because of a couple different reasons....you're never at home and i have 4 kids....my friend has no kids....when i was younger i worked out there.....the hours are brutal....at least 60 every week.....the pressure is unbelievable....gas companies take their pipelines being offline very seriously.....and there's a bit of an issue for me with what you have to do to get the money....they expect you to always put the company first.....an emergency at christmas...get yer ass out there....wife having a baby....get yer ass out there......you got the flu.....get yer ass out there

[Deja Q]

10. Given the importance of the job, I cannot blame the demand.

And a job that pays 2x my current salary is definitely a plus.

[phantom power]

8. That's about 33% more than I make...

with an MS and 17 years of experience in computer science.

[DainBramaged]

3. One word that makes Oil executives get wood

Mexico

[htuttle]

7. Sounds like perfect timing to me

10 years left?

[Deja Q]

11. Maybe they'll offshore the jobs; claim there's no interest here.

:crazy:

[NMDemDist2]

12. hubby just came out of a year in the oil patch

never again

he'll manage a Radio Shack first.....