Website traffic to OilCareers.com, the international job board for the oil and gas industry, has increased by 33% in the U.S. alone from 2009 to 2010.

Figures also show a wider increase in traffic of 42% across the North American continent during the first six months of 2010, compared to the first six months of 2009. This increase is a result of OilCareers expansion at the beginning of 2010 with a new office opening in Houston and subsequent investment in a brand awareness campaign. Resumes uploaded increased by 33% from November 2009 to November 2010, demonstrating that users took the site to be a credible job resource.

From a global perspective, the job board’s talent pool of oil and gas specialists has grown to more than 780,000 users, and its global resume database has also experienced strong growth, up 23% on November 2009 to more than 465,000 resumes in November 2010.

The figures also highlight encouraging growth in a variety of roles, with increases in the logistics, administrative, health and safety, design, and trades fields.

Additionally the sales and marketing sector has seen a marked increase in opportunities, alongside operational, IT communications, HR, personnel and training vacancies, positions that are all considered leading indicators of increasing hiring.

It is a positive sign in an industry that, according to OilCareers.com’s Managing Director, Mark Guest, has clearly seen market vacancies affected by the economic recession over the last two years.

“Industry experts have projected an increase in oil exploration this year,” said Guest. “In theory, a consequence of this should be an increase in job vacancies, which will follow on from the improved signs in hiring we saw last year.”

“With strong oil prices, 2011 should offer great employment potential for people looking for positions within the oil and gas industry worldwide.”

On future trends, he added, “There is enormous scope for young and talented engineers to climb the career ladder, whilst concern for the environment is also expected to create new positions within the industry.”

Although the figures demonstrate areas of growth, OilCareers.com warned recruiters and candidates alike to approach the year with “guarded optimism”, following the release of its white paper, “The 2011 Oil and Gas Industry Hiring Outlook”.

The paper included a number of key observations, suggesting that businesses should focus on hiring in areas of demand, such as engineering, geosciences and undersea exploration and production.

It suggested that a near-term increase in exploration would see a rise in demand for drilling positions, however advised that a longer-term outlook was less positive, with a predicted 14% decrease in this area by 2018.

Another recommendation put forward is for companies to consider extra graduate hiring, recruiting ahead of demand and developing mentoring programmes to begin the transfer of knowledge to a newer generation of engineers and technical staff.

OilCareers.com also noted a potential increase in environmental positions, suggesting that companies may try to establish newly proactive positions in order to address public concern and potential new government regulation following the Deepwater Horizon incident.

Download the 2011 Oil and Gas Industry Hiring Outlook at http://www.oilcareers.com/hiring_outlook_2011/.