U.S. Oil and Gas Employment Up 5% in 2018: Report

The U.S. oil and gas industry employed 880,681 in 2018, an increase of 45,354 jobs-about 5%-from 2017, according to a report by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO).

The annual TIPRO State of Energy Report explores the economic impact of the nation’s oil and natural gas industry.

The report found 466,259 U.S. upstream sector jobs in 2018, an increase of 37,816 jobs compared to 2017. The largest sector by employment in the oil and gas industry was Support Activities with 260,523 workers in 2018, followed by Oil & Natural Gas Extraction (141,810), Natural Gas Distribution (109,675), Petroleum Refineries (69,481), and Petroleum and Petroleum Products Merchant Wholesalers (69,141).

Employment in the oil and gas industry reached a high of 1,054,152 jobs in 2014, followed by a net decline in jobs in 2015 and 2016.

The largest increase in jobs in 2018 occurred in Support Activities for Oil and Gas Operations with an increase of 33,320, followed by Drilling Oil and Gas Wells with an increase of 6,611, both in the upstream sector. The third largest gain came from the Petroleum and Petroleum Products Merchant Wholesalers sector with an increase of 6,134 jobs compared to 2018.

The oil and gas industry paid a national average wage of US$112,712 in 2018, an increase of 1% compared to 2017 and double average private sector wages in the U.S., the report found.

Workers in Oil and Natural Gas Extraction earned the highest annual average wage of all oil and gas industry sectors at US$168,685 in 2018. This was followed by the 69,481 people in the Petroleum Refineries sector, who earned on average US$139,919, and by the 25,993 people in the Petrochemical Manufacturing industry, who earned US$133,522.

The number of U.S. oil and gas businesses totaled 40,421 in 2018, an increase of 76 businesses compared to 2017.

There were 24,415 upstream businesses in the U.S. in 2018.

The U.S. oil and natural gas industry purchased goods and services from over 900 different U.S. industries in the amount of US$534 billion in 2018.

Texas led the nation in oil and gas jobs with 352,371, followed by California with 68,535. California had 32,662 jobs in Natural Gas Distribution, the most in the U.S.