Texas oil and gas has gained 16,000 jobs in the past year, new report says

File photo of Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig in Midland, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) (Tony Gutierrez, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.

The Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association announced Friday the Texas oil and gas industry saw gains of more than 1,000 jobs between December 2021 and January 2022 — and more than 15,000 positions in the past year.

Recommended Videos



The newly released figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and are adjusted against unemployment tax records by TIPRO in its employment calculations.

TIPRO’s analysis found that Texas employment in January totaled 176,300 jobs — an increase of 1,200 jobs from the revised December numbers. Texas employment for January 2022 totaled 176,300, an increase of 1,200 jobs from revised December numbers. This number also reflects an increase of 16,000 positions since January 2021.

The TIPRO report noted January’s job posting data in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors is on the rise along with rising employment, with 8,276 active job postings in the Texas oil and gas industry in January, with more than 3,000 of that number added in January alone.

TIPRO identifies 14 different industry sectors within the Texas oil and natural gas industry. The sector with the highest number of unique job listings in January was support activities for oil and gas operations, which had 2,555 postings. This was closely followed by 1,022 positions in the petroleum refineries sector and 787 postings in crude petroleum extraction.

Sought-after positions included heavy tractor-trailer truck drivers with 420 postings and personal service managers with 283 postings.

The top three cities for unique oil and natural job postings were Houston, Midland and Odessa, according to TIPRO, and the top three companies for job postings were Halliburton with 418, National Oilwell Vasco Inc. with 408 and Baker Hughes with 381.

Ed Longanecker, president of TIPRO, said, “Our industry will experience continued growth in employment and oil and gas production this year to meet growing global demand for our product and to offset distributions in global supply.”

He added that during a multiyear “boom cycle,” it’s critical that the industry continue to offer high-paying jobs in order to provide energy security to both this country and other democracies worldwide.

A February State of Energy report released by TIPRO found that Texas oil and gas industry accounted for more than one-third of total industry employment in the country in 2021,and the gross regional product for the state’s oil and gas was $200 billion last year — 12% of the state economy.

Read this story on the San Antonio Business Journal.

Also on KSAT: