Hiring for Shale Mining Jobs Is Growing Steadily

A report released in December 2011 reported that shale mining supported 600,000 workers in the US and, if 'fracking' continues, is projected to grow to 870,000 by 2015. While this is a controversial topic for many, we wanted to take a look at how many jobs have been recently advertised that are related to shale gas extraction.

Over the past 90 days, there have been just over 1,000 jobs advertised online that included the terms "shale" or "frack." This is a 70% increase compared to the same 90-day period one year ago. There were about 5,600 total jobs posted online in the oil, quarrying, and mining sector over the past 90 days, meaning that shale-related jobs account for about 18% of all jobs in this sector.

Hiring Trend for Shale Workers over Past 4 Years

Source: WANTED Analytics

Some of the most demanded occupations are Engineers. Petroleum Engineers saw the most jobs advertised online, with more than 100 unique listings at a 16% year-over-year increase. Civil Engineers, Environmental Engineers, Engineering Managers, and Industrial Engineers were also among the top 10 most demanded jobs. Other high-demand jobs in this 90-day period were Geo-scientists, Truck Drivers, First-line Managers of Extraction or Production workers, and Operations Managers finished off the 10 most advertised jobs. All of these occupations saw increases in ad volume, with Environmental Engineers seeing the most growth – over 400%. Below are some of the most commonly advertised job titles:

Reservoir Engineer
Geologist
Production Engineer
Drilling Engineer
Petrophysicist (or Senior Petrophysicist)
Completions Engineer
Geophysicist
Document Control Lead
Petroleum Engineer
Geoscience Advisor Exploration – Unconventional

The 5 cities with the most hiring for shale workers over this 90-day time period were Houston, Pittsburgh, Denver, Dallas, and Philadelphia. 4 of these 5 cities saw year-over-year increases in job listings. Only Dallas saw a decline when compared to the same period last year.

Hiring Trends for the 5 Cities with the Most Shale-Related Job Ads