I live near an area where there is a large prevalence oil and gas refineries and O&G-adjacent industries. The men and women who keep these plants running work a grueling schedule and are often involved in fairly risky activities due to the nature of the stuff they are dealing with (flammable or toxic materials). Despite this, tons of locals flock to these jobs and there there is a huge surplus of available people who are seeking these jobs. By huge, I mean people testify to applying to these jobs for literal years before they ever get an opportunity (many don’t without connection). Entry level typically requires experience or an Associates degree. I should note that experience is helpful but not critical, the job is not easy but is not rocket science either. These jobs can generally get you to 6 figures in the first year, and most top out around 150K in a MCOL area. The benefits are generally excellent, some even have pensions. Yes, these companies are extremely profitable and I’ve already mentioned that the work is hazardous and has odd hours, but with the massive surplus of willing and able labor, why do these companies still pay so highly?
In: Economics
These are the types of jobs that get tons of applicants *because* of the salary. They want a large pool of candidates to be able to select the best ones, and when hired to retain their employees, as the cost of them rotating through employees going in and out may be substantial, and there may be seasonality in their jobs, which means they need consistency as they can’t have people coming and going during peak season, or it could take months to years to train employees well enough to be very productive. There can be a large gap, in both time and efficiency, between starting, trained, and actually good or great at your job.
This pool also gives them the ability to ‘plus up’ more employees as needed without much effort. You find a lot of these types of positions in physically demanding intense industries, often in more rural areas, where acquiring talent can be complicated. Especially in things like oil & gas, and other natural resource extraction, like mining.
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