In Washington, a bipartisan bill encouraging energy efficiency, the Shaheen and Portman's Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, was recently stalled due to disagreement over amendments to the bill.

According to Think Progress, Senator Shaheen said this bill can, "help bring jobs back, help fix our trade deficit, help make our manufacturers more competitive, and actually help to protect our environment." However, this bill also came with an opportunity to vote on the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, which if voted on would begin construction immediately, also said to create more jobs.

With both bills potentially creating more jobs in the mining, quarrying, oil, and gas sector, we thought we'd look at the current state of hiring to see what impact the legislation may have on the job market down the road.

Overall, hiring in the mining, quarrying, oil, and gas sector is up 4% year-over-year, according to data from WANTED Analytics. Last Summer, the number of jobs advertised in this sector reached an all-time high. If 2014 is already pacing ahead of last year, then demand for professionals in the energy sector can potentially set another record high. Over the past 4 years, demand increased 251%. We're already seeing rising demand in this sector without these bills getting approved. If hiring trends continue, 2015 could bring an even greater need for energy professionals. In the energy sector, support activities for mining had the highest number of job ads posted online during April, about 9,550 job listings. Oil and gas extraction had the second most demand, with about 4,500 job ads.

Source: WANTED Analytics

The following companies had the most job openings in the mining, quarrying, oil, and gas sector.

• Schlumberger
• Baker Hughes Incorporated
• Halliburton Company
• Oxy
• Koch Industries, Inc.
• Chesapeake Energy Corporation
• NANA Development Corporation
• KEY Energy Services
• BHP Billiton
• Devon Energy

Energy sector jobs were most in-demand in Texas. However, in this state, hiring was down 1%. Throughout the US and in Texas, Petroleum Engineers and First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers were most sought after by energy companies. Overall, hiring for IT workers is rising the most, up 25%. How will energy hiring evolve in the coming years? Keep track with us at our WANTED Analytics blog, Analysis or right here at RecruitingBlogs.