The pace of job-related cutbacks since the oil price tumbled last year is proving tough for industry observers to keep up with.

Since Hays released its 2015 Oil and Gas Salary Guide in February, volatile oil prices have continued to worry candidates and companies alike with expensive fly-in, fly-out roles becoming soft targets for retrenchment.

“Although the price has since increased, this instability has resulted in employers being more risk averse when making recruitment decisions,” Hays oil and gas business director Paula Kirwan told Energy News.

“Many major companies have responded to this challenging environment by restructuring their organisations and making redundancies. Cutbacks have been made to both temporary and permanent staff and have resulted in an influx of candidates on the market.

“Employers are now less likely to pay for employees to relocate and are cutting back on FIFO roles in favour of residential arrangements.”

Getting hired is a completely differently game under present market conditions.

“There is considerable focus on the pre-screening stages of hiring given the volume of applications and the increased scrutiny on hiring choices,” Kirwan said.

The maturation of Queensland’s advanced LNG project portfolio is also changing skilled demand.

“Given the shift from construction to operations, there have been less design and project focused roles,” Kirwan said.

“There will be a call for those who can add value to operations and drive process improvements to reduce cost and increase productivity.

“With minimal greenfields projects on the horizon, candidates with brownfields maintenance and operational skills will be in demand in the contracting space in the next quarter.”

Overall numbers of O&G-related job seekers are swelling. However, Kirwan said this could be a good time for companies to secure top talent that would be vital for future growth.

“Candidate levels have increased in the market in recent months mainly due to redundancies in the industry, rather than salary cuts or wage freezes,” she said.

“We are now seeing some top talent becoming available as retrenchments are being extended to highly experienced and skilled engineers. Candidates are also looking outside the industry for opportunities where they can transfer their skills.”

Hays noted a significant decline in O&G average salaries over the past year, including cuts of up to 15% in some areas.

“Project directors have attempted to curtail escalating costs and ensure project financial viability, replacing lost headcount at reduced salary levels,” Kirwan said.

“This has meant that salaries have remained at best static for in demand roles such as commercial analysts, maintenance/reliability professionals, project engineers and sales engineers.”

There are seemingly few options for O&G professionals facing wage freezes this year.

“The large volume of people seeking work and the shortage of opportunities means candidates are having to adopt a very open mind with regards to salaries,” Kirwan said.

“In addition, many are willing to consider alternative career paths/roles as they understand that they are not in a strong position to negotiate higher salaries at present.

“The main focus for people in the market right now is on their personal development. We advise that candidates shift their focus from financial opportunities to now seeking a role where they can find career development.”

Kirwan provided an outlook on the potential for further job-related cutbacks this year.

“Essential hires and pre-budgeted head count salaries are still stable at this stage, though this might change if oil the price remains at its current level into the second and third quarters of this year.

“Last year was the first year our global salary survey recorded a drop from the previous years’ salary, so we’d expect salaries to come under pressure again as the oil & gas market tightens its collective belt.

“We expect a more immediate impact on contractor pay rates as employers look to cut costs on projects and also anticipate a fall in new hires being approved until prices start to recover.”

The downturn has further increased the chance of mergers and acquisition activity, which can often target job cuts as part of reaching cost-saving business synergies.

“We are already seeing an increase in mergers and the sentiment of employers in the industry is that this will continue throughout 2015,” Kirwan said.

“Financially stable companies are looking to maximise on growth opportunities through the acquisition of targets at current, more favourable, prices. Mergers are likely as businesses join forces to help weather the storm.”