The energy industry is almost universally criticized and hated. And for some reason the number of people wanting to work in it are in short supply.

Many energy sectors currently face shortages of skilled workers, from hands-on labor to scientific specialists to management. Some reasons for this are mundane: energy prices are currently high, and that’s encouraging exploration and expansion. Also, back when energy prices were ridiculously low, many laid-off workers sought permanent career changes. And of course, engineering and technical jobs are hard, involving lots of education and training – and who needs that when a Bachelor of Arts degree is just there for the taking?

Beyond these well-examined causes, however, could be another factor: image. Society’s views of an industry or career affect whether young people choose to enter it. A career’s image has at least two components: a moral one and a practical one. Morally, some jobs are just seen as wonderful: fireman, puppy doctor, and special-needs teacher all jump to mind. And practically, some jobs are seen as good careers for the holder: doctor, rock star, and high-tech something-or-other, for example. On both the moral and practical count, the energy industry comes up short.

Let’s examine the image of energy employees around the world:

North America: Here an energy worker can be hated as an evil profiteer and Dick Cheney protégé. People believe such a worker spends half his time mired in laborious ignorance in Oklahoma or Louisiana and the other half as part of an omniscient cosmopolitan conspiracy to control energy prices and kill cheap renewable energy via secret meetings in Geneva. The third half of his time is spent killing puffins and caribou for sport.

Europe: Across the pond, an energy worker can be hated for exhaling, as this will contribute to the greenhouse effect that is already his fault for supplying everyone with the fossil fuels they voluntarily use. Also, energy and industry are both seen as vaguely American things and are thus unfashionable in Europe.

Iraq: Anyone working here is part of the neocon plot to spread Halliburton and chaos worldwide. When not controlling world history, all such workers get blown up regularly before they can collect their contractor blood money, it is believed.

The Greater Middle East: Anyone working in energy here is aiding America’s enemies in their quest to blow up the world. This is viewed badly in America and with ambivalence elsewhere. Additionally, much of the West believes that the Middle East was a pacifist paradise before the “curse” of oil fell upon the place. Apparently, oil companies invented conflict in the Middle East in order to raise oil prices.

Africa: Any energy worker here is a modern manifestation of white colonialism and probably a supporter of apartheid – or, at best, is there to exploit misery for profit. When not colluding with the inventors of the AIDS virus in order to keep the continent down, the average worker can only get kidnapped and robbed.

Venezuela: In this Gulliverian-Bolivarian wonderland, you can work for a belligerent megalomaniacal ass who is destroying the country’s future oil wealth, assuming you can pass the political test to get the job, which is the only segment of the oil industry popular on university campuses.

Russia: It is widely believed that the Russian energy industry is a corrupt monopoly propping up an authoritarian regime that controls both government and the underworld. Hmm… some reputations are deserved, I suppose.

Waterworld: An image-conscious energy worker could work offshore to get away from scowling people altogether, but good luck getting permission to drill anywhere within 200 miles of a beach. Also, an offshore oilrig attracts hurricanes like a trailer park attracts tornados, at least in the popular imagination. Many see this as a good thing, since it is believed that offshore drilling kills all sea life within a 50-mile radius.

Given all this, it’s hard to believe that the energy industry isn’t being swamped with young idealistic applicants every day. Who wouldn’t want to be seen as a greedy, dictator-loving conspirator bent on oppressing all peoples and destroying the Earth to boot – all while working at a back-breaking job in a dangerous place riddled with terrorists, kidnappers, and thugs? Well, at least the industry still has a better reputation than Congress.