Posted October 12, 2018 11:08:38 The United States is on track to add 3.5 million jobs during the drilling season, a new study by the Federal Reserve Board shows.
That’s up from 2.6 million in March and down from 3.4 million in February.
The latest job gains, however, come as the industry is still recovering from the deadly spill in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people.
“While we do not yet see full employment in the drilling industry, we do see a very healthy job market in many areas,” said Sarah D. Stearns, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.
“There is still some slack in the job market, but we believe that the job growth we have seen this year is a sign of the confidence the industry has shown in the recovery.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that employment increased by 1.7 million in May.
The U.S. is expected to add about 2 million jobs through 2019, according to the BLS.
The bureau projects that oil drilling will add about a million jobs by 2020.
The recovery from the spill, which has been blamed for the deaths of five people, is the longest in 20 years.
The boom in oil and gas drilling is a boon for the U.K. economy, but has had a negative effect on the United States.
In May, the U,K.
reported that it lost 4.3 million jobs, which was the worst since June 2017.
In addition, the number of oil rigs in operation in the U.,K.
dropped by about 10,000 in May, according a report from the Oil & Gas Journal.
“This is a good news story for the UK, but it’s not a good story for us as a whole,” said Tom Harrison, vice president of U.P.
S, an energy consulting firm.
“We are going to continue to see a decline in oil rig activity.”
Stearn said that the industry was “relatively safe” in the first two months of 2018.
“The number of people looking for work in the oil and natural gas sector is low compared to last year,” she said.
“But this recovery is still fragile, and we have some big things that are coming up that will impact the outlook in the near term.”