The US oil and natural gas industry has experienced a growth in jobs from 2007 through yearend 2012, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Oil and gas industry employment increased by 40%, adding more than 162,000 jobs compared with private-sector employment, which only increased 1%, or more than 1 million jobs.
BLS classifies the oil and natural gas industry employment into three categories: drilling, extraction, and support.
At yearend 2012, drilling employment accounted for more than 90,000 jobs, an increase of 6,600 jobs since 2007. Jobs involved in extraction reached 193,000 at yearend 2012, adding 53,000 jobs since 2007. At yearend 2012, support personnel accounted for nearly 286,000 jobs—the largest in the oil and gas industry—an increase of 102,000 jobs since 2007.
Combining these three categories, employment is equivalent to 0.5% of total US private-sector employment.
During the 2007-09 recessions, the support and drilling industries were heavily affected. In addition, the Deepwater Macondo blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 contributed to a minor shift in employment due to a temporary moratorium on offshore drilling.
Since then, the support category has risen because of the increase in monthly oil and gas production. Oil production increased 40%, as gas production rose by 25% during 2007-12.
Other industries are directly or indirectly influenced from a rise in oil and gas production. As seen over the past 5 years, positive employment growth, due to the rise in production, also has had a positive effect on gross domestic product.
Gross domestic product
A report from the US Energy Information Administration states how North Dakota, which has experienced an increase in oil production due to the Bakken shale play, has had an impact on the state's real gross domestic product per capita.
According to data prepared by EIA, the US Department of Commerce, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), North Dakota's below-average GDP per capita was ranked 38th out of the 50 US states in 2001. The state's GDP since 2004 increased consistently every year to ultimately exceed the US average in 2008. By 2012, the state achieved real GDP per capita of $55,250 and was above the US average by 29%. Even though the state of North Dakota was slowly closing the spread on the US average growth rate before the Bakken shale came into play, the state is clearly enjoying the rise in economic growth.
In 2012, and for the second consecutive year, North Dakota stated the highest annual rate in real GDP per capita in the US by increasing nearly 11% from 2011. According to BEA, this increase in GDP was three times the growth rate of Texas, which had the second-highest annual rate at 3.27%. The national average growth rate was less than 2%.
Because of this growth in production, transportation also has become an integral part of the industry as well. Between 2007 and 2012, compound annual growth rate for the transportation and warehousing industry has seen a rate increase of about 16%, with a 35% increase in 2012 alone.
As North Dakota developed its mining and transportation industries, the state's population also grew. In 2012, the US Census Bureau stated that North Dakota saw the largest population growth in the country. It averaged more than 2% growth between July 2011 and July 2012. Because of this growth in population, real estate and food services industries saw an annual compound growth rate of 9% and 7%, respectively from 2007 to 2012.
