As the US oil and gas industry has boomed in recent years it has also started to experience a shortage in workforce causing the historically male-dominated industry to consider a new demographic.

Paul Caplan, president of Rigzone, said in a recent interview with KUHF News that during the first quarter of 2013 women secured nearly half of all new jobs in the oil industry. He suggested that this could be a major turning point for the industry in which about 80% of all employees are male.

“If you look at the overall makeup of the professional workforce in the oil and gas industry, you see that only 18% of the industry itself is women. So, that half of the hires in the first quarter were women is, I think, a sign that some of the programs that the major oil companies and service companies have been putting into play in terms of trying to attract more women to the industry is actually now taking hold.”

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According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, North America’s shale boom created around 8,000 jobs last year in the oil and gas extraction sector, meaning that it now employs a total of 193,200 people. Pipeline transportation added an extra 700 jobs, boosting the number of employees in that sector to 44,600, and the petroleum and coal products manufacturing subsector grew by 1,700 jobs to a total of 114,900.

CNN carried out their own survey of the women taking jobs in the oil and gas industry and determined that most are moving into white-collar and desk jobs.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com