Energy Industry Fueling Job Growth, Cutting Unemployment

In states rich with natural gas and oil, new pathways to the middle class are opening up. More energy exploration means an increased demand for rig workers and welders, geologists and engineers. The average oil and gas industry worker earns nearly $97,000 yearly, more than double the average American wage.

So you would think that with everything going on, people would be flocking into the industry like the California Gold Rush.  Not just yet.

You see, thirty to forty years ago, when the original oil boom was in full swing, people went to college, got a degree in engineering, and went to work in the oilfield. Those that didn’t go to college either went to trade school or got on-the-job training in the oil patch. Many of the people at the “C” Level of energy companies now started out as roughnecks or offshore workers and worked their way up to the esteemed positions they now hold.

But now, four decades later, many of those people are near or at retirement age, and have created what has been referred to as the “graying” of the industry.

Part of the reason for this is that in the intervening years between the late 70’s oil boom and this current one, there was the technology explosion, and that’s what drew most of the technically minded kids into their college majors. They saw people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak start companies in their garage and become billionaires overnight.

So as a result, there was a huge gap between the “old-timers” in the energy industry, and the “newbies” who entered the field after the tech bubble burst and oil and gas was looking pretty good again. Now, even with the influx of those recent graduates and trade school folks, the energy companies are offering extremely competitive packages, signing bonuses, travel opportunities, and many other incentives to get people to join the industry. And with the ability now to extract oil and natural gas in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago, this current boom in the energy industry looks like it will last for a very long time.

But it’s not just the immediate oil and gas industry that’s helping the job market. The oil and gas boom is also boosting hiring in other sectors of the economy. Increased oil and gas production requires new infrastructure — resulting in jobs for construction workers and manufacturers. Oil and gas also needs to be moved to market, which requires more truck drivers and shipyard and railroad workers. Even food service and other ancillary services are required down the line as cities and towns, which once were stagnating, are revitalized by the resurgence of oil and gas.