Geologist Salaries are at Record Highs! High natural resource prices, retirements and low enrollments help boost salaries for geologists.
Graph of average annual salaries of geologists in the petroleum industry as published by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists as part of the AAPG Annual Salary Survey. These represent employees in the petroleum industry with zero to two years of experience. These new employees hold a mix of bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees. It's a Great Time to Be a Geologist!The news is full of stories about petroleum and mineral resource companies offering geologists unprecedented salaries. The commodity prices that traditionally drive geologist employment in these sectors are at very high levels. Oil is flirting with $100 per barrel, gold is near $1000 an ounce and the price of many other important fuels and metals are at or near all-time highs. Times are good for geologists seeking work in these areas. There are lots of interesting and good-paying jobs.
How Much Are Geologists Earning?Geology salaries vary by employment sector. During times when fuel and metal prices are rising, oil and mineral resource companies will quickly respond by hiring a full staff of geologists who can find the commodities that are bringing high prices. To achieve that they often offer unprecedented salaries. This is what we are seeing today.
The graph at top shows the average starting salary of a petroleum geologist with zero to two years experience. It clearly shows that oil companies are willing to pay handsome salaries to new geologists. This trend has been in place for several years. These new employees are earning an average of about $83,000. Similar salaries are currently being paid to new employees in the mineral resource sector. The new employees earning these salaries are a mix of B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. geologists. A larger number of geologists work in the environmental and government sectors. These employers tend to pay slightly to significantly less (10% to 40%) because they are not in such a demand-driven market. However, employment in the environmental and government sectors is usually more stable than the prices of commodities. In the mineral resource industry a sharp drop in the price of a commodity can trigger world-wide lay-offs of professional staff.
Are People Rushing to Become Geologists to Earn this High Pay?There is a "professional pipeline" for geologists. To qualify for a geoscience job a person must earn a bachelor's degree at minimum and many earn a master's degree to compete more effectively in the job market. This education takes at least four to six years. So, anyone who enters the "pipeline" now will not reach the job market for at least four more years. A person who begins working on a degree now could find a different employment environment when the diploma is received.
A "rush to become a geologist" is not evident in university enrollments. For the past ten years the number of people enrolled in undergraduate and graduate geoscience programs has been close to steady as documented by the AGI geoscience enrollment survey. A flood of new graduates is not yet on the way to meet the demand for new geologists.
The AGI data also shows that about 20,000 people in the undergraduate degree pipeline has yielded only about 2,800 undergraduate degrees per year. If we assume that the average student declares a geoscience major about three years prior to graduation, the expected number of degrees per year should be higher. These are challenging programs, often requiring calculus, physics, chemistry and demanding geoscience courses. Some students either fail to persist at the university or change to a different major.
Will the High Rates of Pay for Geologists Continue?It is difficult to predict the future. The demand for geologists in the petroleum and mineral resources sectors will continue to be driven by the prices of their commodities. Logic suggests that these finite resources are becoming harder to find and growth in both population and affluence should put upward pressure on prices. However, there were major lay-offs in the oil industry in 1986 and 1993 in response to price declines. In both instances, prices eventually recovered. Similar trends occur in the mineral resource sector. The conclusion: based upon history: employment and salary levels are cyclical.
There is another important factor in the oil industry "pipeline". A lot of geologists began oil industry careers during a previous time of high geologist salaries in the 1970's. These baby-boomer geologists are now reaching retirement age and a disproportionate number of them will leave oil companies over the next few years. Replacing them, and their accumulated expertise, will be a major challenge for the oil industry.
Environmental geologist jobs are driven by government spending and government regulations. Legislatures rather than commodity prices drive the employment of those geologists. Employment in these areas has been steady to increasing over the past few decades as society becomes more environmentally vigilant and as we attempt to protect and improve our environment. The ideals that drive the environmental movement are likely to continue. We will have to wait to see if state and federal governments continue to support them.
Should I Pursue a Degree in Geology?The standard advice of selecting a career that you will love instead of one that pays a lot of money applies well here. Economic conditions change over time and the demand for geologists will go through cycles. Demand is very high now, however, we should expect times in the future when jobs are hard to find. So, if you are going into geology for the money you might be disappointed in the future. However, if you go into geology because you love the subject then you will always have opportunities for interesting work.
[ 此贴被petrohunting在2008-10-16 09:38重新编辑 ]