A new annual report by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board shows the state’s oil and gas industry continues growing in 2017 with an impact of creating one in every six jobs in Oklahoma.
The 2017 Economic Impact and Jobs Report also shows that the industry still supports 21 percent of the state’s economy with $1 out of every $5 in economic activity.
With the economic downturn in the past two years, the findings surprised Dr. Russell Evans with the Steven C. Agee Economic Research and Policy Institute.
“When you go back and look at the whole picture, you realize that really in spite of that, the state has managed to hold on to much of the gains of the last five or six-year boom period,” he said in an interview with OK Energy Today.
The OERB report showed the oil and natural gas industry employed 114,762 full and part-time employees in 2016 with $20.4 billion in state value added.
Dr. Evans predicts more growth is coming in 2017.
“Either the oil and gas industry starts to hire more people, which I think is happening—-and when that happens, the multipliers increase,” he said. The multipliers are the firms created as a result of the oil and gas growth.
“We are seeing new industries pop up in and around the oil and gas industry,” added Evans. “We are seeing a lot of entrepreneurial activity in and around the main industry.”
But there are words of caution too. Especially for legislators who might view the industry as a target for a tax increase.
“The words of caution would be not to get caught up in looking only at the shortfall. Not to get caught up looking only at this year or next year’s budget shortfall or the recent year’s budget,” said Evans.
Listen to Jerry Bohnen’s interview of Dr. Russell Evans about the OERB report.
