There's still a pressing issue looming for the oil industry: Oil field workers are laid off in huge numbers, leaving a workforce that's younger and — more importantly — less experienced. It only takes a year to build a billion-dollar drill ship, but it takes 10, 20, 30 years to build a billion-dollar captain who's going to navigate and command the ship. While workers currently rising through the ranks will replace many laid off workers, the survey shows a quarter of those positions will be unfilled. The oil bust of the 1980s helps explain the demographic shift in the industry. As crude prices plummeted from $35 a barrel to $10, companies laid off workers and, in many cases, stopped hiring. Three decades later, oil execs are making the same mistakes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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Who cares? How is the stock trading? That's all that matters.