You sound exactly like obama.
The guy is an engineer and unless he has some type of defecency, he should be able to find work.
The fact is, that there are jobs out there for people taut are qualified.
Here is a link to more than 4300 oil field jobs, and yes sometimes you hit to get on an airplane to get to the work site.
http://www.rigzone.com/jobs/search_jobs.asp
As for me, I have worked in some crap holes like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and South Louisiana.