The debate over extracting natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has raged for some time. And last week, it mushroomed into an even more hot-button issue when New York proposed regulations to lift the state’s ban on the controversial process.
Seeking to tap its Marcellus Shale reserves, New York could be on the verge of a major uptick in jobs, similar to what Pennsylvania has experienced. New York’s beleaguered Southern Tier region — much of which borders Pennsylvania — is expected to see the biggest employment boom if the ban is lifted.
EMSI’s recent post on this topic pointed out that nine of top 11 fastest-growing jobs in the US from 2010 to 2011 are related to oil and gas extraction. Much of the growth has occurred among 1099 workers in Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, etc.
But what about New York? EMSI’s latest employment numbers show the Empire State has already seen a 166% jump in oil and gas extraction jobs (NAICS 211) in the last five years. The biggest increase, however, came from 2007 to 2009, when New York added nearly 6,000 jobs (from 4,316 to 10,295).
The steep growth in 2007 and 2008 is striking. But oil and gas extraction employment in New York has leveled off in the last two years. (Note that we don’t have all of the data for 2010 yet; the last quarter is formed by estimates, and 2011 is based on some initial estimates and projections.)
At the same time that New York’s oil and gas job growth has gone stagnant, other states’ employment continues to spike. Since 2009, North Dakota and Pennsylvania have led the nation with the most percentage growth in the oil and gas sector (35% and 22%, respectively). Minnesota has also had major growth.
| State | 2009 Oil and Gas Extraction Jobs | 2011 Oil and Gas Extraction Jobs | % Growth | 2011 EPW | 2009 LQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Dakota (ND) | 2,884 | 3,884 | 35% | $83,144 | 1.27 |
| Pennsylvania (PA) | 18,047 | 22,092 | 22% | $82,495 | 0.55 |
| Minnesota (MN) | 3,863 | 4,595 | 19% | $49,175 | 0.25 |
| Rhode Island (RI) | 356 | 405 | 14% | $63,512 | 0.13 |
| Idaho (ID) | 1,412 | 1,585 | 12% | $41,109 | 0.35 |
| Oregon (OR) | 2,240 | 2,508 | 12% | $24,349 | 0.22 |
| Maryland (MD) | 3,142 | 3,477 | 11% | $14,243 | 0.2 |
| Montana (MT) | 3,856 | 4,252 | 10% | $81,351 | 1.34 |
| Delaware (DE) | 336 | 368 | 10% | $81,708 | 0.14 |
| Alabama (AL) | 4,339 | 4,743 | 9% | $80,338 | 0.38 |
| North Carolina (NC) | 4,638 | 5,055 | 9% | $33,993 | 0.19 |
| New Hampshire (NH) | 652 | 706 | 8% | $36,006 | 0.17 |
| Arizona (AZ) | 6,860 | 7,345 | 7% | $49,789 | 0.47 |
| Michigan (MI) | 16,329 | 17,431 | 7% | $48,771 | 0.71 |
| Florida (FL) | 19,891 | 21,228 | 7% | $39,657 | 0.44 |
| Vermont (VT) | 315 | 336 | 7% | $36,579 | 0.17 |
| Texas (TX) | 290,019 | 308,874 | 7% | $154,908 | 4.49 |
| Georgia (GA) | 5,014 | 5,331 | 6% | $47,543 | 0.21 |
| New Mexico (NM) | 13,219 | 14,030 | 6% | $106,599 | 2.68 |
| Virginia (VA) | 6,902 | 7,272 | 5% | $37,766 | 0.32 |
| New York (NY) | 10,295 | 10,833 | 5% | $111,036 | 0.2 |
| Arkansas (AR) | 8,959 | 9,381 | 5% | $83,917 | 1.26 |
| Tennessee (TN) | 3,998 | 4,186 | 5% | $39,278 | 0.25 |
| South Carolina (SC) | 2,188 | 2,286 | 4% | $33,785 | 0.2 |
| District of Columbia (DC) | 480 | 500 | 4% | $45,846 | 0.13 |
Occupational Outlook
The key occupations driving this industry’s growth since 2007 are management positions and the jobs you would expect to see — roustabouts, extraction workers, and geological and petroleum techs. More than a third of jobs in oil and gas preparation are staffed by managers, all other and property, real estate, and community association managers.
Why do property managers figure so prominently in this sector? Perhaps it’s because some of these jobs could be counts of landowners who are claiming additional income from oil and gas royalties. We delved into this more in our earlier post.
Digging into the Data by County
So, we know New York as a whole has experienced a huge increase in oil and gas extraction jobs. But which counties have the most current jobs? The following map shows the majority of employment is based in the Southern Tier region and surrounding areas — the same part of New York expected to get the most benefit from the ban on fracking.
Three New York counties — Erie, Chautauqua, and Broome — have more than 1,000 current oil and gas extraction jobs, according to EMSI estimates. Erie County is No. 1 with 1,585 jobs.
I am curious as to where your data was derived from. According to the labor board and Moody’s analytics, New York only has a total of 5,000 Natural Resource and Mining jobs state wide. Not sure where the 10,000 you have comes from. On another note, you don’t have the major shale plays boom and bust cycle for the past 10 years. Again, according to the labor board and Moody’s analytics, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Louisianna, have increased 50 thousand jobs and DECREASED 50 thousand jobs. The states you have listed (other than Texas, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, & North Dakota), are in the boom phase and go state to state with their job creation. The states that have extraction of Natural Gas from shale, have seen the boom and bust within 10 years time. This industry is not sustainable job growth.
EMSI’s data comes from a mixture of publically available federal and state sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Most traditional data sources account for just workers covered by unemployment insurance; we add in noncovered workers, including proprietors, through the BEA and Census. This proprietor/noncovered element makes up a very large percentage of the workforce estimate we published in this post (and available in EMSI’s Complete Employment dataset). A good portion of these noncovered jobs are in managament-type occupations — managers, all other, property and real estate managers, supervisors/managers of construction trades, and general and operations managers.