WASHINGTON — Nearly half the workers in the energy sector — an estimated 500,000 — are slated to retire within the next decade, industry and government leaders say. Now, policymakers and industry executives are trying to grapple with this looming labor shortage at a time of increasing energy demand. "Too few potential workers are interested in careers in the energy industry," Assistant Labor Secretary Emily Stover DeRocco said Tuesday.
Appearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, DeRocco said: "Stereotyping of energy careers as low-skilled causes qualified workers, especially youth, to be unaware of the many highly skilled, well-paying career opportunities the industry has to offer."
Plagued by a history of repeated layoffs and a stigma against vocational training that has discouraged young people from seeking energy-related jobs, the sector's labor force is graying at a faster pace than the rest of U.S. industry.
Consider Colonial Pipeline Co., which operates a key network that transports gasoline and other refined products from Houston to New York. The average age of a Colonial employee is nearly 44, some five years older than the national average for U.S. industry, Norm Szydlowski, Colonial's president and chief executive officer, told the committee.
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