Shale Jobs Won't Top Pre-Pandemic Levels Until 2027, Rystad Says

Workers will have to wait until 2024 to see double-digit annual wage hikes

Workers with S&J Contractors lay a pipeline in Lea County, New Mexico, US, on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. With the US oil industry reeling from the collapse in demand this year, the New Mexico shale patch has emerged as the go-to spot for drillers desperate to squeeze crude from the ground without bleeding cash. There’s just one problem: President Biden wants to ban new fracking there. — Workers with S&J Contractors lay a pipeline in Lea County, New Mexico, US, on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. With the US oil industry reeling from the collapse in demand this year, the New Mexico shale patch has emerged as the go-to spot for drillers desperate to squeeze crude from the ground without bleeding cash. There’s just one problem: President Biden wants to ban new fracking there.
Photographer: Callaghan O'Hare/Bloomberg

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By David Wethe

May 18, 2022 at 4:16 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The recovery of the shale patch workforce is still years in the making despite the frothy profits that rallying crude prices are generating for US oil companies and their contractors.

Employment in the US oil and gas industry is expected to jump 12.5% this year to 971,000, according to Rystad Energy. But it will take another half decade before employment in the region tops pre-pandemic levels, according to new research from the industry consultant. Workers will have to wait until 2024 to see double-digit annual wage hikes. Pay this year is expected to climb 2.9%, according to Rystad.