The industry is pumping ever more oil and natural gas, but it is doing so with only about three-quarters as many workers as it employed a decade ago.
For years, as oil and gas companies increased production, they hired lots of workers, enriching communities across the United States. That is no longer true.
The country is pumping more oil than ever and near-record amounts of gas. But the companies that extract, transport and process these fossil fuels employ roughly 25 percent fewer workers than they did a decade earlier when they were churning out less fuel, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.
Now, with some worried about a looming oversupply of oil, producers are tightening their belt, with spending across North America expected to fall 3 percent this year, according to Barclays. That raises the specter of further job losses, even as President-elect Donald J. Trump urges companies to “drill, baby, drill.”
Oil prices have risen in recent days after President Biden announced new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, but it’s not clear how those restrictions may affect commodity prices and U.S. producers in the long run.
The thinning out of American oil and gas jobs is reminiscent of the long decline of the U.S. coal industry, where employment crested decades before production fell as mining companies extracted more rocks with fewer people.
Two decades into the shale boom, companies are drilling wells that extend deeper into the earth, unlocking more oil and natural gas. New technology is letting them oversee drilling, fracking and production from afar, with fewer people on-site. And larger companies are snapping up smaller players, shedding accountants, engineers and other workers as they go.