Energy Firms See Tough Times Ahead

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A number of leading oil and gas firms have laid off workers and staff to cut spending due to low oil prices. The situation is expected to worsen as more layoffs are expected in the coming months. However, the catch here is that energy firms will find the going tough when things start looking up again as they will have fewer skilled staff to handle the operations. This article explains about the labour crisis that is going to strike the oil and gas industry.

Employers Who Retain Key Personnel Will Have The Advantage When Things Start Looking Up

Instead of handing out pink slips to workers liberally on account of the dip in global oil prices, energy firms should identify and retain key personnel. This will come in handy when the situation improves and workers will be needed to manage the oil and gas production activities. Energy firms which do this will have an upper hand over those that have decided to let go of their employees.

Patricia Keefe said in a recent article:

“So far, there have been over 120,000 energy-related job losses globally, according to international recruiter Swift Worldwide Resources….Employers who can keep key personnel in the midst of a depression while others around them are willy-nilly hemorrhaging pink-slipped hot skills out the door, will have the advantage when the market comes back around, as it always does.

The ideal situation is not to lose workers at all, or to at least maintain the relationship.”

The Great Crew Change Likely To Complicate Matters For Energy Firms

Added to this is the fact that many senior oil and gas workers are headed for retirement. Considering the fact that the average age of workers in the offshore industry is between 55-65%, it complicates matters even further. Many graduates and jobseekers in the 1980s showed the cold shoulder to the oil and gas industry due to the downturn at that time. This has created a huge generation gap among workers, which threatens the stability of operations in energy firms.

Joseph Keefe said in a recent article:

“The oil industry has been aware for years of a looming exodus of oil workers who joined in the 1970s in a so-called Great Crew Change.

But a sharp drop in oil prices from June to January that triggered spending cuts and limited opportunities for senior technical staff, threatens to speed up their departures.

That further complicates energy firms’ balancing act as they cull thousands of field and office jobs to save cash, but try to retain seasoned scientists and engineers essential for oil exploration when prices rebound and drilling resumes.”

Energy firms have to do a fine balancing act between letting go workers and retaining key resources to ensure a steady pipeline of workers, when things start looking up again.