US oilfield services giant Halliburton expects to have 2000 more people on its payroll by the end of the first quarter as it accelerates activity onshore North America where operators are quickly ramping up.

Chief executive Dave Lesar said on a conference call on Friday updating investors on what they should expect from the Houston-based company in its first-quarter earnings.

"Based on current customer demand, we are deploying nearly double the pressure pumping equipment than we originally anticipated reactivating for the entire year and we are bringing that reactivated equipment out in the first six months of the year, instead of over the course of the year," Lesar said.

He said Halliburton is trying to maintain its market share in places like the booming Permian basin, positioning for future growth even if it means a higher cost base in the short term.

"This explosive growth is providing us with a unique set of opportunities today," Lesar said.

Halliburton will be bringing back to the field idled hydraulic fracturing spreads and restarting stacked cementing equipment. Most of the new hires will be field employees, a spokeswoman said.

The company had slashed around 40% of its workforce during the downturn that started in 2014. It had around 50,000 employees at the end of 2016, down from some 85,000 at the 2014 peak.

Analysts were cautious on the plans due to rising prices - particularly for frack sand - and because competition in the pressure-pumping space is increasing rapidly.

Jeffries noted that anecdotal evidence suggests the experienced labour market is also tightening, as most services companies have exhausted their "re-hire" lists of previous employees.

"We have now heard anecdotes of ramped up recruiting at area high schools, for example, for entry level field hands," Jeffries wrote on Monday.

"We also sense there is some poaching of experienced hands, at least on the completions/fracturing side. The impact is greater costs for recruiting, training and, we expect, the stirrings of wage inflation."

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Halliburton to add 2000 jobs