The first quarter of 2016 is complete. How is the market so far this year?
Overall, the market has been solid in the petrochemicals to specialty chemicals value chain. Oil/Gas companies are laying off and bracing for a “lower for longer†business case. Refineries are slow but there are jobs open in refineries across the country with many jobs available in the off the Gulf Coast locations. In the refining market PBF refining has acquired 2 Exxon Refineries and Motiva Refining is being split up between Saudi Aramco and Shell. In the chemicals market Dupont and Dow are on track to merge certain business segments. The “lower for longer†energy prices are shifting the focus from new construction to merger/acquisition as the preferred growth strategy. The big wave of capital expansion in the industry will begin to curtail this year as most of the larger projects are completed and will come on line.
One client told us that they don’t know where they are going to find enough qualified operators to fill their roles as the big projects come on line. Our clients continue to seek technically oriented engineers to fill high value niche skills roles. The market is favoring more experienced engineers this year with 10 + years of experience currently being our most popular level of opening.
We remain very busy servicing our core group of clients. Our most active and most urgent jobs are here. Please update us if there have been any changes in your status.