Comments on: Look! Over There! What On Earth Can That Be?

By: Barry

Barry — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 21:10:33 +0000

“Well, the unemployment rate for petroleum engineers is currently .6%, which I would bet includes a lot of felons, uncontrolled schizophrenics, and the like. I am pretty certain the industry could absorb 1000 more tomorrow. Of course, it would involve moving to South Texas or North Dakota or central Pennsylvania.”

Krugman has covered this boom; for example the ND boom involves something like (IIRC) 12,000 new jobs. And if petroleum engineers were in high demand, are there any statistics showing increases in salary? Not just for one or a few, but widespread?

Also, the unemployment rate for an occupation is not very useful; the scamblogs have pointed out that the low unemployment rate for lawyers doesn’t count those never able to get a legal job, or those forced into something else.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:42:52 +0000

Mrmee, mrmee, mrmee.

By: Fred Bush

Fred Bush — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 22:27:40 +0000

Well, the unemployment rate for petroleum engineers is currently .6%, which I would bet includes a lot of felons, uncontrolled schizophrenics, and the like. I am pretty certain the industry could absorb 1000 more tomorrow. Of course, it would involve moving to South Texas or North Dakota or central Pennsylvania.

Clearly your contribution to preparing students for the 21st century economy would be to teach a course on what it’s like living in a mining town with no amenities and nearly 100% male population.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:38:38 +0000

Somehow I don’t think that’s the only limit–that if they had another 1,000 qualified petroleum engineers, they could accelerate fracking by whatever amount that permitted? (I wonder what the ratio of engineer to fracking operation is, actually.) There are other limits they’re up against, some of them political, some of them involving the pace and structure of real estate transactions, and probably some of them involving the market for what they produce.

By: Fred Bush

Fred Bush — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:31:36 +0000

Possibly the fracking industry could rapidly expand with more petroleum engineers and whatnot.

I look forward to a photo of you in a Harlequin outfit.