Despite market uncertainty, Texas upstream employment increased in May

Despite market uncertainty in the energy market, the upstream sector of the Texas oil and natural gas industry added jobs in May.

The industry also contributed to Texas continuing to break its own employment records again last month, The Center Square reported.

More than 208,200 were employed in the upstream sector in May, an increase of 2,200 jobs from April, according to the latest employment data. The increase represents 600 jobs in the services sector and 1,600 jobs in oil and gas extraction, according to an analysis of the data from the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO).

The upstream sector involves oil and natural gas extraction and some types of mining. It excludes other industry sectors like refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities that support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs statewide. Industry jobs pay among the highest wages in Texas, with an average salary of $128,000 in 2024.

"Despite a great deal of uncertainty in energy markets, driven in part by the financial impact of steel and aluminum tariffs, and more significantly from escalating geopolitical conflicts, the Texas oil and natural gas industry continues to maintain its focus on providing reliable energy to meet demand here and abroad," TIPRO president Ed Longanecker said.

In the second quarter of 2025, domestic crude oil production reached an all-time high of 13.5 million barrels per day, led by Texas, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Oil production increased this year after already hitting a record 13.2 million barrels per day in 2024.

Nearly all production growth in the U.S. has come from the Permian Basin in west Texas, as it has in the last several years, The Center Square reported.

“The Permian’s record levels of production in 2023, combined with the region’s overall reductions in methane and flaring intensity mark important progress for the industry as the United States hit the second-highest record for oil and gas production that year, with the Permian providing roughly two-thirds of all U.S. natural gas production,” Texas Oil & Gas Association Todd Staples said. Since then, “Thanks to constant innovation and improvements in production processes as well as increased use of new technologies such as AI, the oil and natural gas industry is making incredible progress protecting the environment and bolstering our energy security,” he said.

Due to market conditions and oil price fluctuations, the EIA forecasts that domestic production will average 13.4 million barrels per day through the end of the year.

May labor data indicates strong job postings for the Texas industry but there were also less overall unique job postings last month compared to April, TIPRO notes.

Still, Texas has the greatest number of active unique job postings in the industry nationwide of 8,157. New York has the second greatest number of 2,661, followed by California’s 2,639, Florida’s 1,544 and Colorado’s 1,264.

Nationwide, there were 49,798 unique job postings in the oil and natural gas industry in May, including 17,962 new postings, TIPRO notes.