Even with oil record in sight, Texas energy workforce still at seven-year low
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Even-with-oil-record-in-sight-Texas-energy-12533523.phpJanuary 29, 2018
...Since crude prices collapsed more than three years ago, U.S. shale drillers have cut costs, gotten discounts on oil field services and drilled in more prolific sweet spots in an effort to pump more crude at lower costs.
Drillers in Texas are on the cusp of beating the state's 45-year-old oil-production record, even though the workforce supporting the oil industry in Texas is about the size it was in 2011.
In fact, several measures of economic activity in the Texas oil industry – the number of working rigs, drilling permits, bringing wells into production – have come in pretty low recently, Amarillo economist Karr Ingham said....