Where Did All The Jobs Go?

This might be a good starting point for a stand-alone post. I might come back to it. For now, enjoy this perspective at zerohedge.com (via "anon 1").

While the boom in Oil & Gas jobs that is so clear in the chart above, it would appear that whether through regulation, market pricing, or 'over-fishing' the growth in rig-counts (as proxied by Baker Hughes below and noted by Reuters late last year) is now falling year-over-year (though well counts are rising) - it seems we need another 'price' boom in Oil and NatGas to get things going again - but of course that will hurt the consumer and implicitly the mainstay of the US economy.

Many, many story lines. Again, from my perspective, all things being equal, using "rig count" as the only data point is unhelpful.