Nuclear pioneer Westinghouse Electric Co. and the Fort Worth, Texas-based oil and natural gas drilling company Range Resources Corp. have a voracious appetite for workers.
Both are on a growth boom not experienced in Westinghouse's case in more than 30 years, as both are players in the production of energy.
"One drilling rig in this area accounts for 150 full-time jobs, and we look to have six rigs up and operating by the end of next year," said Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella. "That's almost 1,000 jobs -- and that's not counting positions with affiliated companies."
With Westinghouse hiring 2,000 people between 2005 and 2008, and plans to add 500 more in each of the next four or five years, finding qualified people can be a tall order.
Energy companies look for assistance from staffing firms like North Shore-based System One Holdings LLC and J Mar & Associates of Plano, Texas.
"Oil and gas companies doing business in the Western Pennsylvania area ... all tell me they're busy," said Susan Reinis, with J Mar & Associates. "We've worked with a Fort Worth-based oil and gas company for a few years in the Appalachian Basin area, and we've placed with them a senior geologist, a mid-level geologist, and now we're working with them to find a senior geophysicist."
On a given night, workers from outside the area who are employed at Range projects occupy 400 to 500 hotel rooms just in Washington County, as there aren't enough local job seekers to satisfy demand. The average annual wage, including benefits, for jobs ranging from administrative to senior petroleum engineers, is $80,000, said Range's Pitzarella.
"The ability to build energy infrastructure is pretty limited in this country," said Michael Corradini, chairman of the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "It's not just a shortage of nuclear engineers, but of all the trades involved in building, because coal plants, nuclear plants, all need pipefitters, carpenters, civil engineers."
System One was formed early this year in a spinoff from Monster.com and selected Pittsburgh for its headquarters because of the demand for energy industry personnel, said CEO Troy Gregory.
"We bought the business in February because we felt it was a solid business, with a solid customer base," said Gregory. "We believe that Pittsburgh is a great hub for the energy industry."
System One employs about 150 people nationwide, including 50 at its Federal Street office, working on placing 3,000 contractors in jobs in the energy, engineering, information technology, engineering and commercial fields. It also has offices at Westinghouse's headquarters in Monroeville, and at its Waltz Mill facility, near Madison, Westmoreland County.
"The people work for us, we handle all the payroll taxes, all the paperwork for our clients," Gregory said. Entry-level people start in the $18-an-hour range, with senior personnel earning in the $60 to $70 range, Gregory said.
Former county Chief Executive Jim Roddey became familiar with System One through accounting firm McCrory & McDowell LLC, where Roddey serves as a senior consultant.
"They've stayed under the radar since they came to town," but its annual revenues are in the $185 million range and could hit $500 million in the next few years, said Roddey, who is doing marketing work for System One.
To find job candidates, System One works with community colleges and trade schools. In the Pittsburgh market, that includes Beaver County Community College, said spokeswoman Susan Changnon.
System One has founded its own school, in Cheswick, which offers 12-week courses on nondestructive testing and quality control technologies.
Range's Pitzarella said his company is talking with universities in the region that don't offer petroleum engineering degrees. Only Penn State and West Virginia now offer such degrees.
"We're also in discussion with a number of parties to put together a public-private cooperative partnership to provide more workers, because if we don't develop the work force here, the potential won't be recognized."
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