The tremendous job creation through America’s shale exploration has never been more evident than in Texas. A wave of economic opportunity keeps coming, and as the Dallas Morning News recently noted, Texas is leading the country in newfound job growth. The latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show year on year increases, according to the DMN:
“Texas has surpassed 300,000 jobs in the oil and natural gas sector as the oil boom drives job growth for a fourth straight year. According to the data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state gained more than 20,000 oil and gas jobs since July 2013, its largest increase since April 2013.”
This is a theme we have highlighted many times in the past, and it has become clear that Texas is more than a single reference point for America’s energy future, but an example for energy and job growth nationwide. Texas may lead the charge, but the United States is benefiting as opportunities to explore for new resources are expanding the national workforce. A recent report from Rigzone also captures the expanding growth numbers:
“In the second quarter of 2014, the U.S. oil and gas industry added 10,500 new positions, beating out the 6,300 positions created in the same quarter of 2013.”
Yes, job growth is bigger in Texas, and that’s good for the United States. This is not another Lucas Gusher at Spindletop or an energy price-driven uptick as in the 1970s, but a development decades in the making. It’s a collection of technologies and careful engineering, sparked by an evolution in oil and gas extraction. Countless articles have heralded the benefits from combining vertical drilling and hydraulic fracturing to unlocked previously untapped resources deep below the earth’s surface.
Texas continues to prosper and produce, while much of the county unfortunately continues to struggle. Still, states that have allowed energy development to flourish have seen the most rapid ascension from the recession. The U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that Texas leads the way (along with North Dakota) in producing half of America’s crude oil, thanks in large part to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling:
“Gains in Texas crude oil production come primarily from counties that contain unconventional tight oil and shale reservoirs in the Eagle Ford Shale in the Western Gulf Basin, where drilling has increasingly targeted oil-rich areas, and multiple reservoirs within the Permian Basin in West Texas that have seen a significant increase in horizontal, oil-directed drilling.”
Many sectors of the U.S. economy are struggling, and job growth is lagging. But in Texas, the energy industry is working to fill an expanding market. Texas weathered the great depression through robust exploration and production, and once again, Texas has sidestepped the great recession, becoming not only one of the world’s great energy producers, but also America’s great job provider.