MORE than 40% of oil and gas businesses say their biggest recruitment issue is the lack of skilled people.
This emerged in a survey of 100 firms exhibiting at OTC carried out by Aberdeen’s LA Recruitment.
It also came to light that 36% of firms found their ability to recruit limited by increasing salary levels.
Four-fifths of companies are seeing a severe shortage of engineers, in particular subsea engineers.
Areas in which recruiting people is the most difficult are Canada, South America, Angola and the Middle East.
More than 70% of respondents believe that recruiting from outwith the oil and gas sector is the best solution to the industry’s staffing problems. A quarter of the companies feel more relevant training is the answer, and 85% believe the industry needs to work more closely with education if it is to improve the situation.
LA Recruitment director Mhairi Preston said: “Cond-ucting the survey has confir-med anecdotal evidence that recruitment is becoming increasingly more difficult.”