The truth about job creation
Time and time again, we have been told that the Marcellus Gas drilling will create thousands and thousands of jobs for our area. In many cases, this promise of jobs has overruled the protection of our air and water. Our streams and wells have been compromised by entities of the drilling industry and our air quality has become polluted.
These topics were comprehensively presented at the Duquesne University symposium held in Pittsburgh on Nov. 25 and 26. Several members of the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) were invited to attend the meeting. One of the topics discussed was “Exaggerating the Employment Impacts of Shale Drilling: How and Why?” This study, completed in November 2013, was researched by Frank Mauro, Michael Wood, Michele Mattingly, Mark Price, Stephen Herzenberg and Sharon Ward. The following context provides a paraphrase and summary of these results.
Over the past five years, there has been a lot of publicity “hype” about the jobs created by the Marcellus and Utica gas drilling operations. The industry has used a variety of tools to exaggerate the impacts of job creation in the gas drilling operations. An example of these exaggerations include the use of inappropriate measures, such as data on new hires, to represent job growth to the misleading attribution of all jobs in “ancillary” industries to the shale industry (Mauro, et.al, 2013).
On July 19, 2012 a press conference was held by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and joined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC). Under the USCC, Karen Harbert, who is president and CEO of 21st Century Energy (the energy policy arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), said the goal of “Shale Works for U.S” was to make sure that lawmakers “don’t squander or obstruct this opportunity” and to “ensure no hindrance or regulatory barriers” to natural gas drilling.
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported that the Chamber’s claims exceeded those reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. The Chamber’s claim was that the gas drilling industry exceeded 300,000 new jobs in the last two years. However, the most recent data released by the Department of Labor and Industry between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that the actual created total jobs was 18,007 jobs in the “core” Marcellus industries with an additional 5,611 jobs in “ancillary” industries. This totals to 23,618 new jobs. This is a far cry from the 300,000 jobs claimed by the industry supporters. On July 19, 2012, the U.S. Chamber revised its estimate of 300,000 jobs to 180,000 new jobs, which is still much higher that the actual 23,618 jobs. The Chamber gave no reason for the revision of the job estimates.
Let us look at what is happening to job creation in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The study includes six states: Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Of these, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia held 32 percent of all jobs created in the gas drilling operations in year 2000, before the emergence of hydrofracking. With this in mind, “Job growth in the industry has been greatest (as a share of total employment) in West Virginia, but shale related employment is less than one percent of total West Virginia employment and less than one-half percent of total employment in all other states (Mauro, et.al., 2013).
Region wide, shale-related employment accounts for nearly 33,000 jobs, one out of every 794 jobs. The education and health sectors, by contrast, accounts for 4.5 million jobs in the region, or one out of every six new jobs. Doesn’t it seem strange that our state cuts appropriations to education and health care and talks about subsidizing the gas industry? Doesn’t it also seem strange that this state has no severance tax because of so-called “job creation” and that the research shows that the public has been mislead by the new job numbers?
Between 2005 and 2012, less than four new shale-related jobs have been created for each new well. This figure stands in sharp contrast to the claim in some industry-financed studies, which have included estimates as high as 31 for the number of jobs per well drilled. With the data, it has been proven that the industry funded jobs report has been greatly overstated. The report by Dr. Timothy Considine and co-authors (industry funded) has substantially overstated the total jobs from the gas drilling industry.
This information will be sent to our representatives to make sure that they are aware of this new and accurate data when they cast their votes on the future of our environment and the gas drilling industry
Here is a question to keep in mind: “Is the environmental degradation that is presently occurring and the future problems worth the minimum number of jobs created?” Remember, these jobs are short-lived.
Update: The DEP has not responded to the request by the IWLA for the testing of radiation from mine discharges. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
As always, believe in yourself and trust in God.