Official: Pa. Workers Need to Adjust to Drilling Culture
Washington PA Observer Reporter
9 May 2010
By Michael Bradwell, Business editor
mbradwell@observer-reporter.com
A state labor and industry official said Friday that it may be some
time before Pennsylvania workers will be fully incorporated into the
burgeoning natural gas extraction business, particularly in drilling
jobs.
Robert Garraty, acting deputy secretary for workforce development with
the state Department of Labor & Industry, said the pace of
exploration and drilling in the state's Marcellus Shale has ramped up
over the past several years.
"It changes all the time," said Garraty, who has worked in workforce
development for four decades and said he's never witnessed industrial
growth as rapid as the drilling industry.
As for job opportunities for Pennsylvanians in the Marcellus Shale,
Garraty, who attended this weekend's Tri-State Oil & Gas Expo
reception at the Hilton Garden Inn and was a participant at the expo at
Washington County Fairgrounds, said workers here, while readily
trainable for gas industry work, will first have to adapt to a unique
work culture.
"The culture of the workflow here is different than in Texas and
Oklahoma," Garraty said, noting that gas drilling crews coming here
from Western states tend to work 14 days in a row in 12-hour daily
shifts before taking a break.
"This is a legacy industry," Garraty said in describing generations of
gas field workers that are accustomed to working long hours. He also
stressed that the state has a good, trainable work force that can learn
the jobs in the gas industry. While the long hours may be perceived as
a drawback, many of the drilling jobs can pay as much as $100,000 per
year with overtime.
But an initial mission of work force developers here will be explaining
to trainees what is expected of them.
"Part of what we need to do is to orient workers to this difference,"
he said.
He acknowledged hearing repeatedly, "Why aren't our people getting more
jobs in the gas industry?"
To be sure, the labor department's Center for Workforce Information
& Analysis is projecting tremendous job growth in the industry over
the next several years.
In 2008, Pennsylvania had 593 companies in six industries ranging from
crude petroleum and natural gas extraction to pipeline construction
employing 10,287 people earning an average of $63,553.
According to the center's "Marcellus Shale Industry Snapshot," released
in April, employment in those six areas is expected to rise 439 percent
in the ten years between 2006 to 2016, with the biggest increase coming
in the crude petroleum and natural gas extraction industry, which is
expected to jump 123 percent and employ nearly 4,300 people by 2016.
Garraty, who confirmed the statistics, said he believes the employment
numbers will go higher than the current projections.
In addition to educating trainees, Garraty said, Labor & Industry
has formed partnerships with employers in the gas industry to determine
specific job needs and skills.
Linda Bell, corporate vice president of the Washington-Greene County
Job Training Agency and a member of the Southwest Corner Workforce
Board, said one of the solutions to hiring specifically for the gas
industry will be to reach out to recent veterans, a group of people
that is accustomed to working long hours.
Saturday's expo, which was focused on providing business-to-business
opportunities between local companies and the natural gas industry,
drew more than 250 exhibitors to the fairground.
On Friday evening, during a reception for expo attendees, several
members of the newly formed Washington County Energy Partners, welcomed
the industry to the area. The group, which includes elected officials,
development organizations, financial institutions and energy companies,
is promoting Washington County as "The Energy Capital of the East," and
has launched a national campaign to position the county as a premier
location for businesses involved with energy.