Here’s How Big Oil’s Six-Figure Jobs are Hurting U.S. Home-Building Business
Construction companies that build homes for Americans in some U.S. states are losing skilled workers to the big oil companies.
That’s because big oil is offering big bonuses and six-figure salaries that home builders cannot match.
This scenario is unfolding along the oil boom towns of North Dakota, Texas and Colorado, where there’s big demand for new homes, but few workers to build them, according to a report by CNNMoney.
Even when a home builder is able to hire a construction worker, it’s often for a short period because he’s usually given an offer that’s hard to refuse by an oil company.
Recruiters are also scoping out truck stops and offering drivers $10,000 signing bonuses to take gigs driving for the oil companies. Some drivers are so eager to accept that they abandon their current loads at the truck stop.
“If you can pass a drug test and have a truck license, you can earn $100,000 a year driving an oil truck,” Granger MacDonald, owner of The MacDonald Companies, a home builder in Kerrville, Texas, told CNNMoney.
But it’s not just drivers. It’s also carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other trade workers going to work for the oil services industry, leaving builders scrambling to rehire and train crews frequently.