Reversing from losses in March, Texas oil and gas industry adds jobs in April

Reversing from job losses in March, the Texas oil and natural gas industry posted job gains in April, according to the latest employment data.

The industry contributed to the state’s job gains, which again led the U.S. in job creation and broke multiple employment records last month, The Center Square reported.

Upstream oil and natural gas employment climbed by 1,700 in April over the month, representing an increase in 900 jobs in the services sector and 800 jobs in oil and natural gas extraction. In March, the industry reported job losses of 800 after reporting gains in January and February of 2,600 and 1,600, respectively, The Center Square previously reported.

From April 2024 to April 2025, the industry added more than 206,000 upstream jobs, a 1% increase. 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.

“The oil and natural gas industry continues to demonstrate resiliency while facing uncertainty with underlying demand concerns,” Texas Oil & Gas Association President Todd Staples said. “These positive job numbers are a tremendous benefit to the families who are supported by this industry and are important for the communities in which they occur. Sound policies that support fair business practices and laws that keep our state competitive are necessary if Texas is going to continue to benefit from oil and natural gas activity."

Since the COVID-era low point of September 2020, the industry has added 49,000 Texas upstream jobs, a 31.2% increase, averaging monthly growth of 891 jobs, TXOGA notes. Over the same time-period, months with upstream oil and gas employment increases outnumbered those with decreases by 39 to 15.

While there were new job postings, there was a decline in overall unique postings in April compared to March, according to an analysis of the employment data by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO). Last month, there were 8,826 active unique jobs postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry, compared to 10,120 in March.

Texas still had more postings than other states by far. California had 2,611 unique job postings in April, followed by New York’s 2,392, Florida’s 1,744, and Colorado’s 1,290, according to the data.

The top three companies posting the greatest number of unique jobs in April were Love’s (665), Cefco (655) and John Wood Group (280), TIPRO found. Of the top ten companies listed by unique job postings last month, five were in the services sector; two were in a gasoline station/convenience store category, two in midstream and one in the oil and gas operator category.

In April, Texas energy producers paid $436 million in oil production taxes and $233 million in natural gas production taxes, according to Texas comptroller data.

This is after the industry paid a record $27.3 billion in state and local taxes and state royalties in fiscal 2024, The Center Square reported.

According to a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration Short-Term Energy Outlook report, U.S. power consumption is expected to reach record highs in 2025 and 2026. “The forecasts for surging power demands underscore the need for reliable power generation from domestic energy sources, including oil and natural gas,” TIPRO said. “Energy policies that support greater oil and gas development will continue to prove critical to keep up with the rising power generation needs in the U.S.”