It’s a good time to be an oil field worker in Texas, a new government report finds.
The resurgence in domestic drilling made possible by new techniques like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has created thousands of new jobs since the recession, and nowhere is that more evident than the Lone Star State.
Texas led the nation in the number of new oil and gas production jobs last year, adding 19,000 private positions in the field such as drilling, oil and natural gas extraction and support services, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That was nearly six times the number added in New Mexico, which had the second highest job creation rate in the nation.
And those numbers don’t take into account the new jobs created in the corporate headquarters of oil and gas companies in Houston and other cities far removed from the shale plays.
Related: Texas oil production set to top No. 2 OPEC country
The data should come as no surprise to folks living in the state’s shale boom counties where an influx of new drilling activity sparked a building spree of hotels and man camps, traffic backups at rural, one-light intersections and long lines of coverall-clad oil workers at conveniences stores.
Source: Energy Information Administration
In the past decade, on-the-ground oil and gas jobs grew at a more rapid pace than the private sector workforce, according to the EIA report released Wednesday.
Between 2003 and 2008, the U.S. added 183,510 oil-and-gas production jobs between 2003 and 2008, a 63 percent increase.
When the recession struck, the industry lost 54,323 jobs as the unemployment rate in the United States ballooned from 5 percent to 10 percent in two years. But the economy rebounded around the same time shale drilling began to take off, and from 2009 to 2013, oil patch jobs swelled another 28 percent to 586,884, according to the EIA.
Related: What recession? Texas oil and gas jobs rebound
The jobs are not only prolific but well-paying, too. The average oil field worker earned $108,000 last year, more than twice the average private sector wage, the EIA said. Since 2009, oil and gas production wages increased by 12 percent, outpacing the private sector.
Most of the job growth has happened in Texas, which is home to some of the nation’s most prolific shale plays, including much of the Permian Basin in West Texas and Haynesville formation in East Texas as well as all of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The Eagle Ford gushed 1.58 million barrels per day in October, enough to satisfy all of Italy’s oil consumption for a day, according to the EIA.
Related: Eagle Ford expected to hit 1.6 million barrels next month
Other states that saw big job growth include New Mexico, where four counties encompass the oil-rich Permian; North Dakota, which contains most of the Bakken formation; and Colorado and Wyoming which share the Niobrara formation.
The Marcellus shale gave Pennsylvania a big job boost in recent years, but growth flattened in 2012-13, the EIA said.
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