There’s lots of oilfield work available in the Permian Basin of Texas, where analysts and employers are frustrated by equipment and personnel, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Big employers in the patch hope to replenish a workforce that was gutted by layoffs over the last couple of years due to low prices.
According to the newspaper, large and small oil field services companies that drill, frack and haul equipment, supplies and wastewater are finding far fewer people willing to work for a boom-and-bust industry.
One small employer says his company is losing $7,000 a day because it still doesn’t have enough truck drivers to deliver equipment to its crews.
The three-year downturn cost the state of Texas a total of 100,000 jobs, one third of the state’s energy workforce.
The Houston Chronicle reports operators have hired just 30,000 workers in the region since the recovery began last year. Equipment and personnel shortages have led oil companies to leave more than 2,400 dormant wells untapped for months in West Texas.
