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Texas' oil and gas job losses this year are even larger than previously thought. The word comes with the release of the Texas Petro Index, a cross section of economic indicators for the upstream oil and gas industry. The index fell to 226.2 in September, a drop of 27.7 percent from its record high in October 2014.
"Virtually every indicator is down now compared to its year-ago levels, certainly – rig count, drilling permits in particular, which came later in the year 2014. And of course employment, where there's new and disturbing data there," says Karr Ingham, petroleum economist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
The Texas Workforce Commission had put industry job losses at about 30,000 through September. But Ingham says payroll employment data indicate the cuts far exceeded that total as early as June.
"Fifty-six thousand is sort of the estimate at this point for jobs lost in the Texas upstream oil and gas business just since peaking in December of last year," Ingham says.
The report comes as the price of Texas crude hovers just above $40 a barrel.
