There are great opportunities for women and minorities in the oil, natural gas and petrochemical industries, according to industry insiders.
“There will be nearly 1.9 million job opportunities over the next 20 years in our industry, and [minorities] are expected to fill more than 575,000 of those positions,” a senior director of external mobilization at American Petroleum Institute (API) told NNPA Newswire.
Of the 1.9 million new job opportunities, 57 percent are projected to be in blue-collar occupations and 32 percent are projected to be in management and professional fields, according to IHS Markit, the London-based data and business research provider.
A recent IHS Markit report noted that Hispanic and African-American workers will account for close to 25 percent of new hires in management, business and financial jobs through 2035, while more than half of the women projected to be hired in the oil industry are expected to fill management and professional occupations.
As noted in the 2017 State of American Energy report, the API continues to work with Hispanics in Energy and the American Association of Blacks in Energy to spread the word about the 707,000 positions projected to be held by African-American and Hispanic workers, API spokesman Reid T. Porter told NNPA.
And many are surprised to learn that the industry has a great deal of job opportunities in blue collar occupations (57 percent), which require little more than a high school diploma and some post-secondary training.
