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Oil, gas industry advertising for jobs on TV
By MIKE SCHREIBER
Era Associate Editor
The oil and gas industry is hitting the television airwaves in an effort to draw young people looking for jobs into the field.
The advertisements — which will run from April 27 to June 11 on cable television systems throughout the state’s oil and gas producing counties — is a first for the industry, which has also held job fairs in cooperation with local employment agencies to boost the ranks of an aging workforce.
“We know there is a great need out there in the industry to fill a wide variety of jobs,” Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association Executive Director Steve Rhoads said, adding the ads will promote such positions as a driller, well tender, service crew member, land agent and environmental technician.
Officials said the advertising campaign consists of a series of five high-quality 30-second ads with the theme “Come do what I do.” The ads will show various workers going about their jobs and telling in their own words what they enjoy about the work.
The ads will run during primetime and are designed to entice young people who are leaving school and starting to look for jobs into joining the industry.
The industry has seen significant growth in the region over the past few years, with a record amount of new wells being drilled in McKean County and elsewhere. The trend will seemingly continue as the price per barrel for oil hovers around $100 a barrel.
Drillers are also looking to obtain natural gas through the process, which has become a premium element in light of rising prices nationwide.
To remain viable, however, the industry needs to replenish its workforce with younger workers, something industry officials are now focusing on through various means.
On the local level, Minard Run Oil Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Fred Fesenmyer called the ads a “win-win” for the industry, noting officials would like to use a similar concept to also attract professionals into the oil and gas field.
“There hasn’t been a clearinghouse, so to speak, for employers to find credible applicants, nor have the applicants been aware of what is available in the industry’s workforce,” Fesenmyer said Wednesday. Fesenmyer is also chairman of the board for POGAM.
According to a study conducted two years ago through the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission’s Workforce Investment Board, the economics of the industry don’t appeal to young workers, who have been choosing career paths that are more stable and lucrative.
Meanwhile, with changes in the oil industry regulations, hiring people with the appropriate skills will not be easy, with entry-level jobs such as roustabouts, rig hands, pumpers and service personnel being the hardest to find.
“It’s tough getting the word out, but we are slowly doing it,” Rhoads said.
Fesenmyer said industry officials talked during a meeting last week in Clarion about what needs to be done to capture the younger people.
“We came to the conclusion that we need to have a bigger presence, mainly physical, to allow people to know we are out there and looking,” Fesenmyer said, adding using the Internet for such a role was found to not be the best option.
Fesenmyer said the industry will be making a concerted push to make it more visible to the potential workforce. That also includes the incumbent workforce who may not be aware of opportunities for advancement.
“We have talked about mentoring at the high school level, where people would go out to the schools and talk to them about the industry and see if they want to spend a day or two out in the oil and gas patch. The physical exposure to the students is critical.”
Rhoads said petroleum programs at Bradford Area High School and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will help boost the cause.
“Those are wonderful initiatives that will go a long way over time to feed quality people into the industry,” Rhoads said.
Rhoads said the ad campaign is targeted to help industry officials find new employees to fill their current job needs, adding all producers have to do is post job openings at a local PA CareerLink office and register the company with the Commonwealth Workforce Development System.
Meanwhile, another industry job fair is slated in McKean County sometime in the late spring or early summer, according to Rhoads.
According to the POGAM Web site, the ad initiative is a project of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Extraction Industry Partnership. The ads were developed using state grant funding secured by the partnership through the North Central Workforce Investment Board.
Funds for purchasing the air time was donated by companies and organizations representing the state’s oil and gas industry, the Web site indicated.
Rhoads said the Penn State University Creative Services Unit performed the work on the ads.
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