Get the facts on shale drilling and jobs | Webinar
Posted on 12/04/13
POSTPONED
Please check back for more information after Dec. 9
Drilling in the six states that span the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations has produced far fewer new jobs than the industry and its supporters claim, according to a six-state study Policy Matters Ohio released last month with the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative.
On Monday, December 9 from 1 to 2 p.m., join a webinar for environmental advocates to get the facts on shale drilling’s impact on job creation. This is your opportunity to hear first-hand from the authors of the study and to ask your questions about what this means for Ohio. Webinar capacity is limited, so reserve your spot today at http://bit.ly/ShaleJobsWebinar.
Key findings are included below, and the full report can be found at www.multistateshale.org.
Key Findings from Exaggerating the Employment Impacts of Shale Drilling: How and Why
- While shale-related employment has made a positive contribution to job growth, the number of jobs created is far below industry claims and remains a small share of overall employment in the region.
- Between 2005 and 2012, less than four new direct shale-related jobs have been created for each new well drilled, much less than estimates as high as 31 direct jobs per well in some industry-financed studies.
- Region-wide, shale-related employment accounts for just one out of every 794 jobs. By contrast, education and health sectors account for one out of every six jobs.
- Many of the core extraction jobs existed before the emergence of hydrofracking.
- Together, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia had 38 percent of all producing wells in the country in 1990 and 32 percent in 2000.
- Some counties with a long history of mineral extraction have experienced a shift in employment from coal to shale extraction.
- Industry employment projections have been overstated.
- Some industry supporters have equated “new hires” with “new jobs” and attributed ancillary job figures to shale drilling even when they have nothing to do with drilling.
- Industry-funded studies have used questionable assumption in economic modeling to inflate the number of jobs created in related supply chain industries (indirect jobs) as well as those created by the spending of income earned from the industry or its suppliers (induced jobs).
- Drilling is highly sensitive to price fluctuations, which means that job gains may not be lasting.
- In some counties, employment gains have been reversed as drilling activity shifted to more lucrative oil shale fields in Ohio and North Dakota.
- Direct shale-related employment across the six-state Marcellus/Utica region fell over the last 12 months for which there are data