Texas Border Business
AUSTIN, Texas – Despite a falling Texas rig count, newly-released data from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) shows that upstream oil and natural gas employment in the state continued to grow in June, with industry adding an additional 2,500 jobs. Last month, oil and natural gas employment rose above 200,000 for the first time in over three years. The 6,900 job surge originally reported for last month has now been moderated slightly to 6,400.
“The continued, positive job growth is a healthy reminder of the role of oil and natural gas in providing the energy that powers modern life,” said Todd Staples, President of the Texas Oil & Gas Association. “We should exercise caution as the global demand picture and domestic monetary policy continues to introduce uncertainty which has led to a continual decline in the rig count. It is important that domestic policy encourages infrastructure build out and promotes local production so that Texas can continue to meet not only our needs but help provide energy stability for countries across the globe.”
Since the COVID-low point of September of 2020, industry has added 51,000 Texas upstream jobs. At 208,000 upstream jobs, compared to the same month in the prior year, June 2023 jobs were up by 24,800, or 13.5%, over June of 2022. Months with an increase in upstream oil and natural gas employment have outnumbered months with a decrease by 29 to 4. Oil and natural gas jobs pay among the highest wages in Texas with employers in oil and natural gas paying an average salary of approximately $115,000 in 2022.
The upstream sector involves oil and natural gas extraction and excludes other industry sectors such as refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities, which support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs in Texas. The employment shown also includes “Support Activities for Mining,” which is mostly oil and gas-related but also includes some small amount of other types of mining.
