3,000 jobs added in December; employment has grown for past eight months

AUSTIN – Data from the Workforce Commission suggests that Texas upstream oil and gas employment continues to climb as upstream employers expanded payrolls by 3,000 jobs in December 2021. At 188,700 upstream jobs, December 2021 jobs are up by 27,800, or 17.3%, from December of 2020.

Since the low point in employment in September of 2020, industry has added 31,200 jobs and growth months have outnumbered decline months 13-to-2. Employment has grown every month for eight straight months with the average monthly gain being 2,538 jobs.

“Texas is poised for continued economic growth as upstream job gains continue to climb,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association. “Oil and natural gas provides over 400,000 direct jobs and an additional 2.2 indirect jobs elsewhere in the economy for every direct job, setting up Texas for success whether you live and work in the oil patch or not.”

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.

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Founded in 1919, TXOGA is the oldest and largest oil and gas trade association in Texas representing every facet of the industry.