The Texas upstream oil and gas sector continues to add jobs, new data from the Texas Workforce commission shows.
In June, upstream oil and natural gas employment expanded by 3,100 jobs, the fifth best single-month performance in over five years. Since the low point in employment in September 2020, months with job gains in the sector outnumbered decline months seven to two.
Upstream jobs are 9,000 higher in June 2021 compared to June 2020. June’s job count is also 10.3 percent higher, or 15,600 more, than the job count in September 2020.
Total upstream employment is 173,100 jobs, which are among the highest paying wages in Texas.
“Continuing job growth in the oil and natural gas industry is critical for the economy at large because every direct oil and natural gas job in Texas generates an additional three jobs elsewhere in state’s economy,” Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, said in a statement. “A thriving oil and natural gas sector not only provides the power, products and fuels we need but also propels the rest of the economy forward.”
The jobs report follows a new analysis released by the TXOGA and the American Petroleum Institute, which found that Texas’ oil and natural gas industry supported more than 2.5 million total jobs statewide in 2019, contributed $411.6 billion to the state’s gross domestic product, including $251.2 billion to the state’s total labor income in 2019.
The upstream sector includes oil and natural gas extraction and excludes refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities, which all support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs in Texas.
Oil and natural gas extraction is upstream activity, meaning it excludes other sectors in the industry like refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities.
According to the findings, in 2019, the industry directly and indirectly supported more than 2.5 million jobs (620,330 direct and 1,888,540 indirect) or 13.9 percent of Texas’ total employment. For every direct job in the oil and natural gas industry, an additional 3.5 jobs were created.
The industry also contributed 22 percent to the state’s total income and to its GDP.
It contributed $251.2 billion in labor income ($134.3 billion direct and $116.9 billion indirect), accounting for 21.8 percent of the state’s total income. It also contributed $411.5 billion to Texas’s gross domestic product ($230.9 billion direct and $180.6 billion indirect), accounting for 22.3 percent of the state’s total.
In 2019, the United States led the world in oil and natural gas production, with Texas leading the nation.
