While employees may be loyal, new eyes see better options.
In the race to recruit the next generation of engineering minds, oil and gas are coming up short. According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of grads going into the petroleum exploration business in 2017 was at the lowest level since 2012, down 61 percent in four years. Part of that is that people want to work for ethical companies, and in an era of climate change awareness — when 67 percent of students consider doing a job that contributes to climate change to be unethical, and 91 percent care about working for an ethical company — oil and gas companies are not necessarily coming out in credit. The average age of workers in the industry is 42.2.