Oil and gas jobs in South Texas are abundant. From gate guards to industry sales reps and engineers, there's a flood of new people running the roads of South Texas and more open positions than companies can find qualified people for. The Eagle Ford Shale oil boom has added oil and gas jobs in South Texas at a rate no one could have predicted.

Pioneer Natural Resources, an Irving, Texas-based driller, has hired 400 people in the South Texas area in the last two years, says Joey Hall, vice president in charge of Pioneer's South Texas Asset Team.

About 75% or a little more of Pioneer's workers are located in the field and contractors employ another 1,000 people who help build rigs and move crude.

The story is similar for Conoco who added more than 500 jobs between its Texas plays and North Dakota's Bakken Shale. Over 50% of Conoco's hires were engineers, but most jobs in the field don't require a college degree.

About 15% of the 54,000 new jobs expected in the Eagle Ford shale by 2021 will require a college degree, and a little more than 10% will require direct experience in the energy business, Tunstall said.

Read more in an article from South Carolina's wltx.com.