Keeping oil and gas industry jobs in Alaska: new investment could bring even more opportunities for workers.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: OIL & GAS

According to the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research, a third of Alaska jobs, or approximately 127,000 positions, are dependent in some way on oil production or spending of state oil revenue. Close to 20 percent more jobs, or 60,000 positions, can be traced to the spinoff benefits of oil wealth, resulting in half of Alaska's jobs being traced to oil development. With numbers like this, it is no wonder that many people, from employers to job recruiters to politicians, are concerned about the future of oil and gas employment in Alaska.

In 2010, the oil and gas industry in the state accounted for 44,800 jobs and just less than $2.65 billion in annual payroll to Alaska; this employment number increased by 2.4 percent in 2011, and preliminary reports by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research and Analysis Section in January 2013, predicted a 4.6 percent in 2012 and a 2.9 percent increase in 2013.

Still, oil and gas companies and the businesses that support them have reason to be concerned. Within a decade, it is predicted that there will be a major shortage of skilled workers in the energy field with approximately half of the industry's skilled workers expected to retire. This upcoming workforce scarcity, as well as the desire of some workers to leave the state for jobs in the Lower 48 and overseas as oil production in Alaska trends downward, could signal big problems for a state dependent on oil revenues.

Where the Jobs Are Now

Despite the fact that oil production has trended downward for the last twenty years, oil employment in Alaska has been on the rise, according to the January 2013 Alaska Economic Trends, published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. This increase is credited to the need for more labor to find and extract harder-to-reach oil as well as the drive to produce more oil while prices are high. Additional labor is also required for repair and maintenance of the state's aging oil and gas facilities.

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While some workers do leave for jobs in the Lower 48 in Texas, North Dakota and Utah, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico or overseas, there hasn't been a major exodus as feared. Still, losing talented workers does take a toll. "Oil exploration by nature is attractive to entrepreneurs; those who are averse to 'process thinking,'" says Crystal Nygard, managing director, Management Recruiters of Palmer. "We can't afford to lose good talent...