Fresh graduate oil engineers are no longer top earners

gas fieldsOil fields.Photo: Pixabay

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For the first time in 15 years, fresh graduate engineers in the oil industry will earn less than their counterparts elsewhere in the private sector.

‘Both engineers in the oil industry, and elsewhere in the private sector, earned less than they did a year ago, but the decline is greater for the former group’, according to a salary survey from Tekna.

They looked at the incomes of scientists and technologists with a Masters degree five years after graduation, according to Dagens Næringsliv.

Since 2002, civil engineers in the oil industry had a small edge over their counterparts. At the peak of the ‘wage gap’, it was at around 5%, or a scant 30,000 in 2008. But in 2016, the
roles are reversed, and it’s oil sector who are now beneath others in the private sector.

‘It’s about who loses his job and where to go. If we look at our unemployed members, there is a predominance of those who had their last exam five or fewer years ago’, said Tekna president,
Lise Lyngsnes Randeberg.

She is critical of the bad time frames, which hit the young hardest, and believes competence should outweigh seniority when downsizing.

‘It will enable your business to put together a competitive team, with a combination of experienced people and the young and fresh, who bring the new information they’ve learned. Presently, there is a too heavy expenditure on seniority, so you risk losing a whole generation who see no future in the industry.’

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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