Recruitment agency Hays’ Oil & Gas Global Job Index has revealed a strong Q3 2012 result in the face of certain economic and seasonal headwinds for the industry.

The index, which tracks the number of jobs posted on nine oil & gas portals around the world, stood at 1.60 in September – just below the all-time high of 1.63 seen in May. The index was established in October 2010 and set at 1.

A steady posting of jobs came in spite of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer holiday period, which would have stalled job posting through July and August.

But Matt Underhill, managing director of Hays Oil & Gas, says broader issues are a bigger concern. “While European debt worries continue to weigh on markets, it is the relative slow pace of growth in China that’s had the biggest impact,” he says.

He also comments that there has been “an easing of the acute skill shortages that existed coming into the quarter”, linked to a fall in other commodity prices.

Alongside the summer holiday period hitting hiring in many areas of the Western world, the Muslim festival of Eid spelt a quiet month of August in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the markets in North Africa are slowly but steadily recovering after the social unrest of 2011, while activity elsewhere in the continent saw growth over the summer.

One hot spot noted in the report was the Colombian capital of Bogota, which is seeing “a flood of new businesses entering” – which is offsetting falls in Venezuelan activity. Elsewhere in the continent, the first oil licence auctions since 2008 in Brazil have been announced.