Shale boom in Ohio is not all that [View all]

A decade after the start of Ohio’s shale gas boom, counties with the most oil and gas production continue to have higher-than-average unemployment rates.

A review of state data shows that unemployment rates in Belmont, Carroll, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe, and Noble Counties have exceeded the statewide average every year since 2010, casting doubt on the view that the shale gas industry would be a game changer for jobs in Appalachian Ohio.

A report commissioned by the industry-funded Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program predicted in 2011 that the shale gas industry would create or support 204,000 jobs as soon as 2015.

Annual reports by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, however, show a net increase of less than 21,000 jobs in core and supporting industries since a 2012 law opened Ohio to widespread development of fracked, horizontal wells.

Even with the jobs that were added, the top-producing counties still have higher unemployment rates compared to the state overall. The Energy News Network interviewed more than a dozen experts and local sources and heard four recurring explanations for the disparity.

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“Many of these counties also need better access to healthcare, early childhood education, job training programs, and investments that capitalize on their natural resources — not just extract them,” said Amanda Weinstein, an economist at the University of Akron. Her research has found that “jobs are generally following people to nice places. This is leaving places with lower quality of life with fewer job opportunities.”

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/11/29/why-ohios-top-oil-and-gas-producing-counties-continue-to-lag-in-jobs/

But, ten years ago we were told this industry was going to turn Ohio around!

And you just know how most of the folks in these counties voted in the midterms …