Eagle Ford Shale alters employment outlook

SOUTH TEXAS – The Texas Workforce Commission takes a snapshot of the state’s labor force every few years and tries to predict the future.

For the 11-county Coastal Bend Workforce Development Area, the state predicts roughly 14.3 percent job growth by 2018 — an increase of 38,000 positions to a total of more than 302,900 jobs.

The state soon will release an updated ten-year outlook for jobs across Texas and in the Coastal Bend based on 2010 data, according to Lisa Givens with the Texas Workforce Commission. That data will reflect shifts in Texas’ job landscape since the last prediction, including the arrival of Eagle Ford.

Eagle Ford accounted for more than 3,900 direct and indirect jobs and generated a combined $5 billion in economic impact in 2011 alone for Nueces and San Patricio counties, according to a University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) study.

In 2011, Eagle Ford oil and gas well drilling spawned about 5,100 nonresidential construction jobs and about 1,800 food service positions, according to the UTSA study.

For job growth in the 11-county workforce region in 2011, industry trends accounted for 67 percent of oil and gas extraction job growth, and local forces accounted for 20 percent, according to Jim Lee with Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.