Patch Personnel’s fourth annual Subsurface Oil & Gas Employment Insights Report highlights a range of forces exerting both positive and negative pressure on subsurface hiring, pay, employee engagement and sentiment.
This year, we surveyed nearly 300 subsurface professionals and 27 companies in Australia and New Zealand to identify trends in recruitment, workforce planning and sentiment about working in the industry.
Amongst a less-than-rosy economic backdrop, attracting and hiring talent remains a challenge, with companies and employees erring on the side of caution. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as there are untapped opportunities for both talent attraction and increasing loyalty among current employees.
In a recent webinar, Patch Personnel’s managing director, David Styles, highlighted the research’s key findings, along with additional insights, outlining opportunities in oil and gas recruitment and growth in oil and gas jobs.
Oil and Gas Recruitment Activity
For 44% of companies, the most significant challenge related to hiring this year is the limited availability of candidates. The most acute talent shortages are for skill sets that could and did transfer to other industries, such as electrical instrumentation specialists, control engineers and process engineers.
With that in mind, it’s noteworthy that only 4% of companies are open to employing international candidates on a visa sponsorship, compared to 48% in the year prior, signalling growing wariness about business costs.
The number of visas being issued to oil and gas professionals in other countries has certainly increased, but it’s a somewhat different picture in Australia and New Zealand. We frequently communicate with oil and gas professionals who have specialist visas and are eligible to work without needing sponsorship. Still, many are not currently in Australia or New Zealand – and companies here remain hesitant to hire these candidates. Looking ahead, we can expect overseas candidates who already have visas and only require relocation will likely move to the top of the hiring list once the local talent pool is exhausted.
Permanent vs Contractor Hiring
For last year’s report, we asked companies if they planned to hire more permanent employees. Almost half (48%) said yes, and this year, we confirmed that 52% did hire more permanent staff, aligning closely with our previous forecast.
However, whilst 63% of companies initially confirmed they would hire more contractors or temporary employees, only 44% did, showing a significant reduction from 2023 expectations.
Government Policy Factors
Looking ahead, hiring expectations for the next 12 months are modest, although there is potential for acceleration, especially with the government’s National Gas Strategy coming into play.
With the Strategy demonstrating the government’s support for the industry, at least in the short-term, we should hopefully see that translate into public support. This could result in easier access to capital for micro, small, and mid-cap companies, enabling them to achieve more – and, consequently, boost hiring levels.
East vs West Coast Hiring
Comparing the East and West coasts of Australia for oil and gas jobs demand, we expect the east to gain momentum more quickly, with demand driven by small to mid-sized companies.
The East Coast has several factors in its favour: a gas supply shortfall, low development costs, abundant infrastructure, and a favourable gas sale price – a combination suggesting rapid growth.
The West seems to be gaining momentum primarily through larger companies like Chevron and Woodside. Although it offers larger projects with larger TCF reserves, employers in this region face challenges due to high capital requirements in a saturated market.
Overall, growth is expected on both coasts, but the East Coast may see faster acceleration due to its specific advantages and supply shortfall.
What Makes People Change Jobs
Each year, we ask subsurface professionals about their willingness to change jobs in the next 12 months. Our latest findings show sentiment hasn’t changed by more than a couple of percentage points compared to last year, with just 16% of respondents open to finding a new role and actively applying for new positions.
Salary and stability of employment are key considerations – a sentiment clearly aligned with broader concerns about the cost of living. When considering new employment, remuneration remains the top consideration for subsurface professionals, with 60% giving it the top spot, whilst company culture and work-life balance retained their respective positions in second and third on the list this year. And 79% of respondents said they would prefer a permanent full-time role, up from 65% last year.
Factors such as sustainability policies, diversity inclusion policies and parental leave policies have less purchase among subsurface professionals when choosing a new role. That’s not to say these issues are unimportant for them; it’s more likely that the other primary factors will simply be weighted more in their decisions about which role to take next.
Perceived Future in the Industry
We’re pleased to see a continued decline in the number of respondents considering leaving the oil and gas industry in the past 12 months. This year, only 32% of respondents have considered leaving, down from 42% last year and 56% the year before.
Whilst some still consider leaving due to lack of employment opportunities, job instability, and a desire to work in a different industry, these reasons scored lower than in previous years.
However, concern about mental fatigue has risen, with 36% citing it as a reason to leave, up from 28% last year. We believe those remaining in the industry are driven by a strong desire and determination to stay.
Oil and Gas Salaries and Wages Trends
This year, 56% of respondents received a pay increase, with the majority seeing a modest raise between 1% and 5%, indicating a cost-of-living adjustment. This trend is reflected in the overall remuneration data, including staff salaries and daily rates.
When asked about remuneration reviews, 44% of employers confirmed they increased staff pay last year, down from 53% the previous year.
Our full report provides detailed remuneration data for all subsurface disciplines and seniority levels, including average oil and gas salaries and daily rates, with comparisons to the previous year.
Attitudes Towards Working from Home
Sentiments about working from home and flexible working have presented especially interesting data points with implications for oil and gas recruitment and HR strategies.
Compared to last year, more professionals are willing to immediately resign or consider changing jobs if their employer cancels or reduces their current work from home arrangements.
However, work from home policies are not a key consideration when contemplating a role with a new employer. We could interpret this finding as a sign that employees don’t want to lose the flexibility they already have access to.
Meanwhile, 52% of companies we surveyed said they do not have plans to review or revise their work from home policy this year. These figures suggest there is ample room for change in work from home policies across the industry in the next 12 months.
Effective Recruitment Channels
Despite the relatively small subset of professionals who told us they were actively applying for new roles, 62% said they were open to being approached with the right opportunity.
If these subsurface professionals are open to changing roles but are not actively looking, how could companies go about attracting them? We found that word of mouth and personal networks, along with engaging an established, reputable oil and gas recruitment agency, are employers’ top strategies for finding new talent. These findings reiterate the preference that professionals have highlighted about being approached for a role rather than actively searching for one.
If job boards and traditional job advertising won’t attract top candidates, we see clues that social media presents a better avenue of opportunity.
An overwhelming majority (92%) of subsurface professionals said they often or sometimes use social media to find new job opportunities. However, only one in five companies is regularly using social media platforms such as LinkedIn for this purpose. For companies that are struggling to recruit, it’s worth considering the ways social media can be used to engage with potential job seekers.
Discover Oil and Gas Recruitment Insights
That covers a selection of the findings in Patch Personnel’s latest oil & gas insights survey. For more insights and data on oil and gas salaries, access your free copy here or please contact one of our recruitment specialists.