Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Corbett Administration & Drilling Advocates Exaggerate Again PA Gas Drilling Jobs--It Is NOT 245,000!

Corbett got into his drugs remark pickle, when discussing the Pennsylvania economy and gas drilling. This is a normal pattern for the Governor, who constantly and wrongly suggests that gas drilling alone can bring Pennsylvania prosperity.

Unfortunately, the Governor's Administration and some trade associations feed Corbett's misunderstanding by constantly spreading the erroneous claim that the gas industry has created 245,000 "jobs" in the Commonwealth.  This wrong number is a vampire and again appears in this Andrew Maykuth piece: 
http://www.freenewspos.com/news/article/a/225794/world%20economy/debating-economic-impact-of-marcellus-shale-in-pa.

The 245,000 "jobs" number first appeared in an industry sponsored study more than 2 years ago that actually counted the number of "hires."  Jobs and hires are different categories.  Each new job normally creates more than 1 hire, as people leave a job and a new person is hired to fill that job.

Despite the obvious inaccuracy in the 245,000 number, the Corbett Administration and others in the drill-baby-drill camp keep using it.  These folks need to get a clue. This continual exaggeration only undermines their credibility.

As the Maykuth piece suggests, gas drilling in Pennsylvania generates about 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. This number includes jobs classified as "core," "direct," and "indirect" drilling jobs. An example of a core drilling job would be an operator of a gas drilling rig.  Direct but non-core jobs would include drivers of trucks carrying water and other materials for gas drilling, operators of bulldozers used to prepare drilling sites, and many more. Waiters, waitresses, hotel staff who have jobs because of gas drilling activity are among the large number of indirect jobs created by gas drilling

If you have one of the approximately 100,000 jobs created directly and indirectly by gas drilling, it is the only one that counts.  And those jobs are concentrated in rural counties, where the unemployment rate has fallen as a result of gas drilling.

But 100,000 jobs are less than 2% of  the  6.5 million jobs Pennsylvania needs.  Gas drilling alone cannot bring broad prosperity to Pennsylvania.  No one industry can do that.

Pennsylvania needs a Governor who understands these basic facts, or Pennsylvania will remain at the bottom of job creation tables.



2 comments:

  1. That's really the sad part of construction workers. It is not a permanent jobs. I just hope they have plan B every time they can't land a job at construction site because money is really hard to earn right now especially if you many children you have to save a lot in order to support their education. montacargas colombia

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  2. The oil and gas industry does create many job opportunities for residents in the area, thus providing a livelihood for families. The role of the oil and gas industry in creating job opportunities cannot be sufficiently emphasized.

    ReplyDelete