US Oil and Gas Extraction Jobs Fall to Lowest Level Since 2022
Oil and gas extraction employment in the U.S. fell to 114,600 jobs in July 2026, the lowest monthly total in more than four years, Rigzone reports, citing preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Market Impact
The July figure marks a steady slide through 2026, down from 116,200 in February, 115,900 in March, 115,200 in April, 115,400 in May, and 115,100 in June, according to the BLS data cited by Rigzone. The last time employment in the sector was lower was March 2022, when it stood at 112,300. BLS figures show the subsector has shed workers from June to July in nine of the last 11 years, and employment has historically fallen further from July into August in seven of the past 10 years, including drops in 2022, 2024, and 2025.
The broader trend lines up with industry data. TIPRO’s latest state of energy report, released in March, found the U.S. oil and gas industry employed 2,043,859 people in 2025, a net decline of 8,368 direct jobs from 2024. TIPRO also reported 373,478 direct U.S. upstream sector jobs in 2025, down 9,218 from the prior year. For comparison, BLS data shows the oil and gas extraction subsector peaked at 187,300 jobs in January 2016 and bottomed out at 110,900 in November 2021 and January 2022.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Drilling and completions-focused subcontractors should treat the July drop to 114,600 as a leading indicator of tighter bid volume heading into fall, historically the sector’s slowest hiring stretch, with August declines recorded in seven of the last 10 years.
- Firms bidding wellsite services, HDD, or E&I packages tied to upstream operators should factor TIPRO’s reported net loss of 9,218 direct upstream jobs in 2025 into pricing and crew-sizing assumptions for 2026 contracts.
- Companies with headcount tied to extraction-heavy basins should benchmark current bid pipelines against the March 2022 trough of 112,300 jobs, the last comparable low, to gauge how deep this downturn may run before rebounding.
- Subcontractors diversifying into midstream or downstream work may find better footing, given the DOE’s 2025 USEER report showing broader energy sector employment grew to 8.35 million in 2023 even as upstream extraction jobs contracted.
