Texas upstate employment figures for the month of August have increased over July figures.
Citing the latest Current Employment Statistics (CES) report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Texas Association of Producers and Copyright Owners (TIPRO) said that Upstate Texas employment for August 2023 totaled 208,500, which TIPRO said was up 1,200 jobs from July numbers.
According to TIPRO’s analysis, Texas upstream employment in August 2023 represented the sum of 18,200 jobs compared to August 2022, including an increase of 2,300 jobs in oil extraction and natural gas and 15,900 jobs in the services sector.
New employment data from TIPRO again indicated strong job posting for the Texas oil and natural gas industry during the month of August. According to the association, there were 11,951 unique active job postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry in August, including 4,409 new job postings added during the month by companies.
By comparison, the state of California had 3,641 unique job openings last month, followed by Louisiana (1,790), Oklahoma (1,609) and Pennsylvania (1,364). TIPRO last month reported a total of 53,810 unique job openings across the country within the oil and natural gas sector, TIPRO said in its analysis.
The top three companies ranked for unique job openings in August were Cefco (933), John Wood Group (543) and Love’s (406), according to TIPRO. Top industry occupations for August include front-line supervisors of retail sales workers (612), maintenance and repair workers (544) and heavy tractor-trailer truck drivers (343). Top positions posted for August include customer service representatives (193), store managers (192) and field service technicians (120).
TIPRO also cited data released by the Texas comptroller’s office that Texas energy producers paid $501 million in oil production taxes last month, more than the previous month, and also contributed with $137 million in natural gas production taxes, also higher than the totals collected in July.
Overall, tax revenue for the sector is down from earlier this year, due to a slowdown in drilling activity in some of the state’s major oil and natural gas basins.
“Despite the headwinds of high inflation, aggressive monetary policy and Washington DC’s continued efforts to target domestic oil and gas production, the upstream sector in Texas fortunately remains strong,” he said Ed Longanecker, President of TIPRO. “Policies designed to slow exploration and production activity do not affect growing demand, but they can directly affect investment and supply, further exacerbating the economic strain that all Americans are under. We need collaboration, non-political, to develop a cohesive and sensible strategy that recognizes the critical importance of oil and gas and the much-needed investment in energy infrastructure,” Longanecker concluded.
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