The Louisiana & Gulf coast job boards attracts an excess of willing workers for less jobs now than there has been for years. You would be forgiven for thinking that a skills gap could not possibly exist in times like these, but you would be wrong.

For Louisiana staffing agencies... the majority of whom are servicing the Gulf Coast oil & gas industry, as well as shipyards and the many fabrication workshops that exist servicing the oil and offshore industries needs the reality of a skills gap is real and very frustrating.

Staffing agencies in New Orleans, Houma, Baton Rouge, New Iberia and the Golden Triangle regions all have a similar story...There is no shortage of applicants but they don't fit the criteria...Hence, we have a skills gap!

How can there be so many people looking for work and yet there still be a skills gap?

The answer is simple yet on the surface at least it seems hard to comprehend, as many of the applicants for skilled jobs do not qualify due to not only having different skills, but there are a lot of out of work welders and fitters from closed down manufacturing car factories or steel fabrication plants, and many of the jobs in the Louisiana and gulf coast region is for these specific skills. However, there is a major difference between working for a car manufacturing plant, to working on a shipyard, refinery or offshore, where there are real dangers and that specific safety and working practices have to be adhered to.

The main problem is finding workers with the safety and skills certificates that are essential to getting work in the Louisiana and gulf coast area for these skilled crafts. There are safety & security certificates and cards that are now mandatory to work and gain access to these workplace environments.Some of these aare quite recent developments which has isolated many of the workers who were previously able to work.

This, together with an ever increasing number of law suits, especially for injuries which are often claimed by lower skilled workers, mostly those who are working offshore, the Louisiana blue collar temporary staffing agencies and labor contractors are reluctant to take the risk of employing untrained, and less experienced applicants, for fear of more claims of accidents and injury. In a marketplace where the United States Longshore & Harbor (USL&H), and Maritime Employers Liability (MEL) workers comp insurances is extremely expensive compared to other industries, many these small businesses are at risk of going out of business should they have more expensive claims, and as a result their workers comp rate rises.

Some local staffing companies in Louisiana are already reporting excessive increases of up to 20% with a similar ratios of claims to the previous year.

Times are tough these days for staffing services in the Louisiana and the gulf coast states in particular, even if they have clients and work during a recession and with a higher than usual pool for applicants for every position.

The Safety certificates and card problems can be laid out like this.

1. Is the lack of applicants with (TWIC) Transportation Worker Identification Credential . TWIC is an important part of the Transportation Security Administration's efforts to improve security in the Nation's transportation system. A lack of the correct documentation even if they have the right skills means they effectively cannot legally work in places like shipyards, refineries, offshore vessels and rigs and are therefore contributing to the skills gap in Louisiana, rather than alleviating the problem.

2. SafeGulf...which is the basic safety training standard developed by four major offshore oil companies: BP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil. All contractors who perform offshore work for these operators must:

• Complete training in accordance with SafeGulf approved curriculum

• Pass a 100 question test

• Carry a SafeGulf Identification Card (these cards have no expiration date)

• Be listed in the SafeGulf database

3. Water survival, and 4. also needed is fall protection cards. Additionally, some contractors insist on skilled craftsmen to have IRATA certification.

Of course the recruiters, human resource managers and staffing services can offer to pay for the various safety and security training programs, and pass cards but there is no guarantee that the workers will stay after they receive the passes and cards.

Having these cards and certificates would make the worker insantly in high demand and due to the risk of a worker getting all the necessary accreditation's and leaving soon after, the Louisiana staffing agencies are not prepared to make the investment, which can run into thousands of dollars after taking weeks to acquire.

Another major factor is that skills from other industries are not easily transferable .

People might think that its just a matter of retraining and retooling workers with similar skill, who, as mentioned previously, may have lost jobs in other industries. It might be hard for some observers to comprehend why so many skilled craftsment such as welders, mechanics and fitters are not able to work when the skills are in demand and yet there are so many jobs going unfilled.

The issue here, is that these types of skills are not instantly or easily transferable. Lets go back to our comparison with the car manufacturing welders as an example, these have completely different welding skills to what is needed for the marine and offshore industries.

So, unfortunately the trend of severe shortage of skilled temp workers and craftsmen such as Tig Welders, Pipe Fitters, Flux Core Welders, Inner Shield Welders, Certified Riggers and Diesel Mechanics are still true for the region and for the Lousiana employment agencies there doesnt seem to be an easy or instant fix.

One Louisiana staffing company and local contract labor provider, Baystone Contractors has also tried the creative route of solving the problem by attempting to find information about getting government funding to solve the problem. There is money available from the stimulus bill to use for retooling and retraining workers, but despite efforts to get the information about how to apply for funds available under the highly publicised stimulus package, which could & should be used to retool and retrain workers, and which would bring massive benefits to both the workers and employers in the gulf coast, marine, oil and offshore industries, there does not seem to be anyone who can answer the question of where and how to apply!

After contacting the Department of Labor and the local Congressman's office, there doesn't seem to be any easily identifiable information for to pick up on. The whole idea of the stimulus bill was for job creation and yet Louisiana, in fact many of the gulf coast region, blue collar staffing agents and employers are unable to get an answer on how it can help them, it seems a pity when there is an easily fixable solution to unemployed workers and jobs that cant easily be filled.