Boyd, Roosen, Quartermain: It takes grit, invention, luck to make the big time
Mining industry legends discuss the backstories on their multibillion-dollar successes.
Friday’s blockbuster US employment report showed 321,000 jobs were created in the US in November across a broad range of industries.
The data for October was adjusted upwards and wage growth, which has consistently lagged the topline number also accelerated by more than expected last month.
MarketWatch reports mining and logging is one of six industries that can’t find workers fast enough according to research conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research and job site Indeed.com:
Like with manufacturing, there aren’t a ton of jobs in this sector — the BLS estimates that fewer than 100,000 people are employed in the U.S. in the natural resources and mining fields — but the pay is decent at $31 an hour for all employees and $27 an hour on average for nonsupervisory employees. Still, more than 36% of the jobs in this industry stay open for longer than three months (likely for similar reasons that manufacturing jobs stay open, says D’Arcy) with jobs like crew member, crew foreman and field supervisor staying open a particularly long time, says Indeed.com.
It’s not unqualified good news for jobseekers however.
One of the reasons these jobs don’t get filled quickly “may have to do with the fact that not many new people are seeking jobs in the field.”
In addition, “employers are becoming increasingly picky — they want specific technical skills or experience and there is a very narrow pool of people with those specifics,” says Paul D’Arcy, the senior vice president at Indeed.
16 Comments
Mark
Sounds like the employers just aren’t motivated to actually hire and/or train new talent. Particularly for those sorts of positions. Mining companies might not receive the sort of resume flow typical of, say, the technology industry. But they can be overly picky as to who they bring in to interview and hire. If talent isn’t developed from the ground up, of course there’s going to be a long-term problem hiring experienced. Firms shouldn’t expect to replace a retiring 30-year-experienced person with another 30-year-experienced person — they should be looking towards newer grads to fill those positions.
G.A. Browne
This is the news that I go to sleep soundly every night now. If you read “Boom, Bust, Echo by D. Foote, You would understand that this was easily determined. Just plan a little and wait for the bust. LOL. lovin it
Nordbird
I always wondered what would happen when I turned 60 with 35 years mining engineering experience.
Now I know, I just doubled my charge-out rate.
Copper
It would be a much better article if we actually heard from the mining companies rather than a research group looking for a headline
Charles Moraes
Exactly, just another speculative headline, ordered from MarketWatch, repeated by mining.com. “Here are six industries where unfilled jobs remain open for longer than average, according to custom data that Indeed.com ran for MarketWatch.”
I believe more in Santa Clauss than Indeed as a good ‘job market related agency’. Thanks for the wasted time.
ROD B
TtHE OTHER BIG PROBLEM FOR THE MINING COMPANIES IS THEY USE COMPUTER PROGRAMS TO DO THE HIRING. I WILL NOT FILE ANOTHER ON-LINE APPLICATION FORM FOR ANY MINING COMPANY. THEY GET WHAT THEY PAY FOR!
john D.
I spoke on the phone with an HR person at a major mining company the other day and was told that they had over 1000 applicants for one job posting. I know from experience that an online job posting is often created only for one or a few people to go through the motions after already getting an offer or at least scheduling an interview. I don’t know why these jokers would expect anyone to take this article seriously when the first two paragraphs don’t have anything to do with the topic.
Brian Cunningham
I agree about training talent for the future. Mine companies seem to want people who are fully trained on day one ready to go. They are just trading employees back and forth. Once retirements hit they are going to be out of people. The again I did hear one mine executive say that training people is not his jobs, it’s the governments. he expected local and state government to pick up training cost for the privilege of him mining in the state. No wonder the US is falling behind.
travis90
Apparently it’s much easier to give land to RIO and BPH so that that those jobs can be exported.
Bernard
I am looking for a mining position since Jeune 2014 and cannot find any. Please ask the mining companies to contact me right away because I am available with lots of experience.
Regards,
Bernard
sailormac
Canadian Mining Executive: “Oh, where are all the people?”
Me: “20 years ago you laid us all off, and did not hire or train anybody since.”
Canadian Mining Executive: “Huh !”
chet
Fatso better lay off the donuts.
Mark Levin
That’s BS. There are a LOT of well-qualified mining people on the bench right now due to all the project curtailments in the Western US. We recently advertised for miners for an underground contracting project, needed 12 guys, got over 100 resumes in a few weeks from a plethora of very experienced candidates, as well as degreed mining professionals even applying for labor positions.
unemployed
Mining companies are laying off people left and right, there are few jobs and the one’s that are open are quickly filled. Commodity prices are down, and the rule is to cut costs, which means reduce the workforce. Where do these research companies get their data?
jimnbubba
Not so much a shortage of good miners as a shortage of good jobs
patentbs
Seen lots of crap over the years.1) not training replacement workers 2) lay off till it hurts, then hire back a 60 year old contractor 3) workers who do not want to live in remote areas 4) workers with so much money they have to spend it on drugs 5) companies reading the above article and saying we need foreign workers.
Get your stuff together people – it is a great industry but it needs everybody participating.
As for the HR crap – just get key words in the spaces and let the stupid software pick you. Then you get to talk to a real person!