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Oil industry plays catchup during lull

Filling backlog of skilled workers long-term project

CALGARY
- After a record year of growth and energy prices, oil and gas companies say the expected slowdown in the pace of activity in 2007 will only give them an opportunity to focus on hiring more workers to catch up with pent-up demand.

“We have a structural problem,” says David Fulton, vice president of human resources at Shell Canada Ltd. “I do not think the shortage is going to go away any time soon,
and that was one of the big debates 18 months ago.”

The industry has been so overwhelmed by the incredible need for everything from oilfield service technicians to geophysicists and engineers that any slight moderation in activity will simply allow the industry to catch its collective breath and continue the hiring frenzy.

“It’s hot all over,” Mr. Fulton says. “There are very few cold skills, or even lukewarm ones anymore.”

According to the article above there is a continual demand for skilled trades in the oil and gas sector. However, according to the memo on Occupations Under Pressure in Alberta and a similar release for similar ones in British Columbia, there are many related occupations to the natural resources industry that still require to be filled. Even general construction labour has to be filled and that can sometimes mean earning around 80-100 thousand dollars (Canadian) per year simply by being young and strong and willing to work hard in adverse climatic conditions from time to time.