From Appalachia to Alaska, the growth is eye-popping. Thousands of new jobs have sprouted up, most well-paying and all boons to their regions. There's no denying oil and gas extraction jobs are on the rise, and not just in Texas and Oklahoma.
North Dakota is drilling oil at a blistering pace. Pennsylvania and West Virginia, along with parts of New York and Ohio, are seeing a natural gas boom with their Marcellus Shale reserves. And Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska, and other Western states are adding extraction jobs in droves.
The six fastest-growing jobs for 2010-11, according to EMSI's latest quarterly employment data, are related to oil and gas extraction. This includes service unit operators, derrick operators, rotary drill operators, and roustabouts. Each is expected to grow anywhere from 9% to 11% this year, in an otherwise stagnant economy.
But that's not all. A mixed bag of other extraction and petroleum-related jobs"”wellhead pumpers, all other extraction workers, geological and petroleum technicians"”are also expected to see healthy gains. In total, nine of the top 11 fast-growing jobs in the nation are tied in one way or another to oil and gas extraction.
Occupation
2010 Jobs
2011 Jobs
Change
% Change
Service unit operators, oil, gas, and mining
42,110
46,766
4,656
11%
Derrick operators, oil and gas
23,323
25,747
2,424
10%
Rotary drill operators, oil and gas
28,116
30,981
2,865
10%
Roustabouts, oil and gas
75,636
82,678
7,042
9%
Helpers, extraction workers
44,303
47,247
2,944
7%
Petroleum engineers
29,063
30,917
1,854
6%
Biomedical engineers
16,065
17,061
996
6%
Wellhead pumpers
24,186
25,616
1,430
6%
Extraction workers, all other
23,423
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