Longview, Texas Job Fair Shows Upturn For Area's Energy Industry

The quarterly job fair sponsored Tuesday by the Longview News-Journal showed another sign the area's oil and gas industry is recovering.

Three employers representing the oil industry — QES Pressure Control, Energy Weldfab and Halliburton — were among 21 vendors participating in the job fair that drew almost 400 people to the Longview Exhibit Center at the Longview Fairgrounds.

The oil industry is coming back, said Dee Collinsworth, human resources manager for QES in Oklahoma City.

"We're growing, expanding," she said.

QES in Longview has about six openings for coiled tubing and snubbing operators, said Longview District Manager Daniel Baker. Coiled tubing operations have capabilities that include well intervention, plugging and abandonment, and snubbing units run tubing under pressure, according to a company description.

Entry-level jobs at QES start at $16 an hour, Baker said.

QES, which bought the former Great White Pressure Control in Longview in January 2016, participated in a local job fair two years ago before oil prices plummeted and the industry collapsed, Collinsworth said. QES has about 30 employees in Longview.

Halliburton took part in the News-Journal's second-quarter job fair in April, but Energy Weldfab was there for the first time.

Recruiters from both companies declined to be interviewed because they said they were not authorized to speak to the press.

A Halliburton representative met with job-seeker Clayton Turner of Rusk, who works weekdays as a carpenter foreman for Southeast Texas Industrial Services of Bridge City. Turner said he worked in the oilfield for 16 years before joining his employer a year ago.

Turner said he drove more than an hour to the job fair to find employment closer to home. He said his drive to his job assignment in Bay City takes 4 1/2 hours.

Job seekers had opportunities to meet with other employers, who included food services companies, staffing agencies, an air-conditioning unit manufacturer, a private prison and schools.

Kimberly Brown-Jones of Longview said she was laid off three weeks ago as general manager of a restaurant in Tyler that axed three jobs.

Brown-Jones, a single mother who has worked 12 years in the restaurant field, said her job search "is not very successful. It has been very challenging."

Rodney Shurelds, a recruiter with Hill Country Staffing, said 30 to 40 people visited his booth within 3 1/2 hours after the job fair started.

Shurelds said Hill Country Staffing has about 40 openings for drivers with commercial licenses and equipment operators at client companies such Western Marketing, a trucking company in Abilene.

Pay ranges from $15 to $20 an hour, Shurelds said.

At least two job candidates said they were flexible in their employment search.

Marissa Helaire of Longview said she is seeking a full-time job to supplement her part-time work in membership services at Sam's Club.

"I am really flexible," she said. "I like to do a lot of different things."

She said she filled out an application for a cafeteria job at Longview ISD.

Stephen Bray said he recently moved to Longview from San Marcos to accompany his girlfriend, who took a job with a pharmacy technician school.

Bray said his goal is to pay the bills, then finish college.

"I'm just excited to be here in Longview," Bray said. "It seems like a large, small town."

Source: News-Journal