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Job growth in the Texas oil and natural gas industry continues to remain strong, contributing to Texas again leading the U.S. in job growth last month.

In October, the upstream sector added 1,400 jobs, according to the latest data published by the Texas Workforce Commission. October’s employment data marks six out of nine months this calendar year that the number of jobs in the industry increased, and the fifth monthly increase in a row, the Texas Oil & Gas Association notes.

The industry’s job growth data confirms Gov. Greg Abbott’s statement at the Texas Oil and Gas Association’s recent annual Lone Star Energy Forum. TXOGA President Todd Staples said, that, ‘Texas would not be Texas without the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas industry powers the Texas economy, and it’s one of the reasons why we are the eighth largest economy in the entire world.’”

“The aggression of Russia against Ukraine and ongoing unrest in the Middle East confirms why these energy sector jobs are so important – Texas and America cannot be dependent on foreign nations for our oil and natural gas supplies if we want energy security for our families and friends at home and abroad,” Staples added.

Since the COVID-era low point of September 2020, the industry has added 39,100 upstream jobs, averaging 798 jobs added every month. Months with employment increases outnumbered those with decreases 38 to 11, TXOGA notes.

These jobs pay among the highest wages in Texas, with employers in oil and natural gas paying an average salary of roughly $124,000 in 2023, TXOGA notes.

The upstream sector includes oil and natural gas extraction and some small amount of mining. It excludes the refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities sectors that support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs statewide.

Texas producers also paid $436 million in oil production taxes and $182 million in natural gas production taxes in October, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office. These taxes fund major aspects of the state’s budget, including the Public Education Fund, the State Highway Fund and the Rainy Day Fund.

“The energy industry is the lifeblood of what happens in our economy every single day,” Abbott said at the forum. “The oil and gas industry powers the Texas economy, and it’s one of the reasons why we are the eighth largest economy in the entire world. Texas also provides national security to the United States of America because of the role that oil and gas play for the Texas and American economies. We all have an obligation to be guardians of our national security, to protect our country, and one of the pathways to achieving that goal is to support the energy sector in the state of Texas.”

The additional 1,400 upstream jobs for October brought the total jobs in the industry to 196,100. All new upstream jobs were in the services sector last month, the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) notes. The number of oil and natural gas extraction jobs remained unchanged over the month.

TIPRO also points to new production forecasts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicating more growth in domestic crude oil and natural gas output is on the horizon in the next year. In its November Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA projects domestic crude oil production will increase to 13.53 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2025, a record high. The EIA projects that marketed natural gas production will increase to an average of 114 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) next year, increasing 1% from this year’s annual average.

The increases are projected to be led by Texas, again, which leads the U.S. in production and exports. This includes a 6% increase in production in the Permian Basin and a 5% increase in the Eagle Ford Shale over the year.

“Given the outcome of the elections, TIPRO looks forward to working with the new administration, incumbents and newly elected officials at the state level in Texas to reinforce the importance of domestic oil and natural gas production,” TIPRO President Ed Longanecker said. “While it may be a lengthy process, we look forward to returning to some level of normalcy from an energy regulatory standpoint, which will bring tremendous benefit to our state, country and industry.”