Benchmark
Fracking Jobs Encouraged American Teens to Become High School Dropouts
The jobs may have done lasting damage to the educational attainment of low-skilled males
A worker checks the drilling rig before attaching it to the turntable on Endeavor Energy Resources LP's Big Dog Drilling Rig 22 in the Permian basin outside of Midland, Texas, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 12, 2014.
Photographer: Brittany Sowacke/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
That burst of employment generated by fracking in the past decade may not have been all good news for the U.S.
Jobs offering low-skilled American teenagers a chance to earn big bucks in the shale oil and gas industry also made it less attractive to finish high school, causing a jump in dropout rates, a new study showed. It was published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research.