Top traditional energy employment trends to look out for in 2025

Launched in 2017, the Global Energy Talent Index (GETI) Report charts emerging trends across the world’s energy workforce. Since its inception, GETI has depicted insights from thousands of energy professionals to create a comprehensive map of the evolving energy landscape, giving organisations the tools they need to refresh their skills and retain their talent. 

This year’s GETI report analyses data from the past five years to create a trends report that examines the key challenges, opportunities and shifts shaping energy businesses, professionals and hiring managers.

We have restructured this year's report into three chapters to better align with industry developments. The former petrochemicals and oil and gas chapters have been grouped into Traditional Energy.

Salary increases for the traditional energy sector

Data from the past five years reveals a positive trend in salary increases after the challenging
period of 2021 and 2022. The year 2024 marked a significant turning point, with more professionals experiencing pay rises than those whose salaries remained stagnant.

Currently, half of the workforce reports an increase in their earnings, and 26% have enjoyed raises exceeding 5%. Only 5% indicated a decline in their pay.

Hiring managers report the same upward trend; in 2021, 38% reported a salary increase,
compared to 61% in 2025. This year is the first year where increases show signs of flattening out, with the percentage reporting a large increase (5% or more) falling for the first time since 2021.

Janette Marx, Chief Executive Officer, Airswift observes:

As the industry recovered from COVID-19, pay did not keep up with inflation. Over the last couple of years, many companies focused on closing this gap to accurately reflect the highly technical competency of the positions, which has helped attract and retain employees.

Global mobility in the traditional energy sector

Over the past five years, the expatriate workforce has remained around 40% – higher than any other energy industry sector. Although traditional energy professionals report an increase in cross regional transfers on offer, a higher proportion are more reluctant to relocate now. In 2025,
only 80% of the workforce would consider relocating, compared to 89% in 2021.

Janette Marx, Chief Executive Officer, Airswift comments:

Some companies are moving to localise expatriates sooner to reduce overheads, which is weakening the financial incentive to relocate. The industry’s contractor cohort remains strong, however, these factors shouldn’t lead to a shortage of talent. That said, if organisations are facing a shortfall, it’s these types of policies that should be reviewed along with a greater focus on career progression as part of the complete package.

Attracting and retaining traditional energy talent in 2025

Since 2023, interest in switching roles within and outside the energy industry has remained static. This year, only 14% would not consider moving to another role, with 62% curious about other roles within traditional energy. Two-fifths would consider moving to another energy sector, with renewables the most popular choice. Interest in renewables was at its lowest in 2023 (56%) but has risen sharply to 71% this year.

A fifth would consider a move outside of energy with technology a firm favourite; since 2023, 28% of professionals would consider switching to it. Transport, logistics and infrastructure have consistently held second place since 2022, with interest fluctuating only slightly over the years, with manufacturing in third.

Career progression is the number one reason for switching roles over the past five years, hovering between 33% and 37%. While ESG was important at the beginning of the 2020s, its importance has waned towards the middle of the decade and interest in the wider industry has resided in second place since 2023. More recently, remuneration and benefits, technology and job security have all been of greater interest to professionals.

The outlook for the traditional energy sector

The top four opportunities facing the energy sector have not changed between 2021 and 2025, although there have been some significant movements in their importance. Engineering techniques and technology remain the top opportunity overall, though its share has dropped from 44% to 37%.

Meanwhile, the energy transition has surged from 30% to 37%, surpassing economic outlook in some regions. Professionals now rank the energy transition as the leading opportunity in South America, North America, Australasia, and Europe.

Conversely, the opportunity posed by the economic outlook has fallen dramatically since 2021, from 37% to just 25% in 2025. Digitally enabled skills and competencies, along with safety, have also risen in potential since 2021.

Janette Marx, Chief Executive Officer, Airswift says:

The results reflect the story of how the industry is evolving. Pressure has increased to make the industry cleaner, safer and more efficient – advanced technologies and techniques remain a key part of that, but AI is also coming to the fore, as we saw in last year’s GETI. Additionally, it has become increasingly imperative that we achieve this regardless of the political climate or economic pressures.