Fracking’s Dismal Record on Job Creation

While Big Oil and Gas love to tout job creation numbers, recent analysis exposes the reality behind these claims.

Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally appeared on the website of Food & Water Action (our affiliated organization) at an earlier date.

The oil and gas industry has long posed a terrible tradeoff. It might risk poisoning your water, destroying the environment, or causing horrible, mysterious illnesses — but, the industry argues, it provides needed jobs. Not only is this an awful bargain; it’s an empty one. Recent analysis from our sibling organization, Food & Water Action, reaffirms what we’ve known for a long time. Big Oil and Gas’s claims about jobs are nothing but hot air.

This is especially relevant in Pennsylvania, where fracking holds massive sway over politics. But despite what fracking execs want you to believe, the industry has little impact on state job numbers. In 2023, it accounted for just 19,452 direct and indirect jobs — just 0.32% of the 6 million jobs in Pennsylvania. That’s a record low for the past decade, even though the state is producing gas at near-record highs.

At the national level, the oil and gas industry provides just 621,861 direct and indirect jobs. Yet, the American Petroleum Institute (API), the industry’s main trade group, claims oil and gas is responsible for 11 million. In fact, the industry’s job numbers are falling, despite record-high oil and gas production. 

Meanwhile, jobs in renewables and green manufacturing are booming, in great part thanks to federal policies. But Pennsylvania is losing out. The state has seen barely any growth in solar and wind production, and none of the employment growth in these industries. At the same time, it continues to shed oil and gas jobs. 

This starkly shows the economic cost of prioritizing fossil fuels over clean energy and makes clear that we need more support for renewables across the country. Clean energy presents a huge opportunity for more good jobs in the U.S., and we need more policies to support it.

Big Oil and Gas’s Bogus Accounting

For years, the fossil fuel industry has inflated job numbers, making outrageous claims about its economic heft. However, these claims are nowhere near the employment statistics generated by state and federal agencies.

Food & Water Action found that direct employment in oil and gas extraction is near its lowest level in a decade. In 2023, the industry employed only 115,638 people, having hemorrhaged about 81,000 jobs since its peak in 2014. Even including indirect employment in related sectors, like pipeline transportation and manufacturing equipment, the industry was responsible for only 621,861 jobs.

Meanwhile, the industry backs its job claims with deceptive accounting tricks. For example, nearly half of the “direct jobs” in API’s analysis are in the gas station sector. It also says that the industry supports 2.3% of all employment in the fossil fuel desert of Washington, D.C. This laughable claim makes sense only when you consider the army of consultants, lawyers, and lobbyists pushing Big Oil’s agenda in the halls of government.

The truth is, the oil and gas industry is not the jobs heavyweight it claims to be. It doesn’t bring employment opportunities — just pollution, sickness, and economic decline for local communities.

Federal Policy Is Driving Jobs in Renewables and Manufacturing

While fossil fuel jobs are stagnating, employment in renewable energy has only grown. 

Food & Water Action found that from 2021 to 2023, wind and solar generation jobs offset the decline in fossil fuel generation jobs four times over. This resulted in a 7.7% increase in the total number of jobs in electric power generation.

Industries integral to our renewable energy transition have also seen jumps in employment. For example, battery manufacturing added 10,000 jobs over that period. Growth in sectors that include renewable manufacturing also helped contribute to the creation of 563,986 jobs in manufacturing overall.

This is no coincidence. The Biden-Harris administration has championed renewable energy, including measures that reward domestic sourcing for components and prioritize American jobs over free trade commitments. These policies are contributing to the start of a manufacturing renaissance; one based on clean energy, not dirty fossil fuels.

Pennsylvania Is Losing Out on Renewables Growth Because of Fracking

Unfortunately, this growth has not reached the Keystone State, likely in part because of fracking’s dominance. Pennsylvania has seen near-negligible growth in renewable energy, while broad swaths of the country have made leaps.

From 2014 to 2023, the proportion of electricity generated from wind and solar in Pennsylvania grew from 1.8% to 2%. That’s far behind the national growth, which went from 5.1% to 15.9% over the same time period.

Thanks to a lack of investment in renewables, Pennsylvania’s electric power generation sector has suffered fossil fuel job losses without new renewable electricity opportunities to help make up the difference. 

In 2023, employment in the state’s electric generation industry fell by 28.9% compared to 2014. Wind and solar sector jobs were so few that they weren’t even reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Contrast that with Arizona, whose wind and solar generation grew from 4.2% to 12.1% of the state’s electricity over the same time period. That resulted in a 52% increase in the number of overall electric generation sector jobs.

Fracking has Pennsylvania tight in its clutches, and it’s preventing jobs, opportunities, and growth in the green industries of the future. At the same time, Pennsylvanians are becoming increasingly sick of the toll the industry exacts. A 2020 poll found that a slight majority of Pennsylvanians now oppose it.

We Need to Buck Big Oil and Gas’s Narratives and Support Real Job Growth

It’s past time to shut down the fossil fuel industry’s myths of jobs and economic impact. Playing into these talking points is harmful to Pennsylvanians and people across the country. 

They’re completely false — and they fail to account for all the costs that communities bear, like rising healthcare costs, destroyed tourism and recreation industries, and boom and bust cycles that harm local economies. They also conveniently gloss over all the economic benefits we will see as we move into a renewable energy future.

When you look at the facts, it’s clear we need a just transition to 100% renewables. We need policies that bring an end to the fossil fuel industry that has hurt local communities and economies; policies that take care of former fossil fuel workers left behind by the industry and that foster millions more good jobs in the clean energy sector.

Our climate, our economy, and our communities deserve nothing less.