Shovel-Ready Jobs in the Oil and Mining Fields -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

This is an exceptionally good article on shovel-ready jobs and how those jobs support hiring in other industries in the immediate geographical area.

From Appalachia to Alaska, the growth is eye-popping. Thousands of new jobs have sprouted up, most well-paying and all boons to their regions. There’s no denying oil and gas extraction jobs are on the rise, and not just in Texas and Oklahoma.

North Dakota is drilling oil at a blistering pace. Pennsylvania and West Virginia, along with parts of New York and Ohio, are seeing a natural gas boom with their Marcellus Shale reserves. And Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska, and other Western states are adding extraction jobs in droves.
The six fastest-growing jobs for 2010-11, according to EMSI’s latest quarterly employment data, are related to oil and gas extraction. This includes service unit operators, derrick operators, rotary drill operators, and roustabouts. Each is expected to grow anywhere from 9% to 11% this year, in an otherwise stagnant economy.

Many, many data points:

• Despite seemingly more and more obstacles for the oil industry to survive, much less thrive, the industry appears to be doing quite well
• The growth in oil is not limited to just one or two states, or even to one or two regions, but literally in areas as diverse as Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, and California
• Everything suggests that this phenomenon is not short-lived, but likely to go on for decades
• Non-oil and gas companies are also benefiting where they support the oil and gas industry

"In total, nine of the top 11 fast-growing jobs in the nation are tied in one way or another to oil and gas extraction." 

The discussion regarding 1099 vs W-2 pay was particularly interesting. It is amazing how the government can classify folks by the forms they fill out regarding pay.

My hunch is that regardless of where the federal government wants to take the nation in terms of shutting down the oil and gas industry, governors of debt-ridden states will be marching to a different drummer.