The Economic Impact of the Oil and Gas Industry in Ventura County

Last month, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) released its most recent study that revealed the economic impact the oil and gas industry has on the state.  The LAEDC conducted this analysis using 2015 data from the oil and gas industry as a whole.  The bottom line is that the oil and gas industry makes a significant contribution to California’s economy.  

Even more interesting are the characteristics of the workforce that the oil and gas industry employs which is in some aspect reflective of the demographics of our state.  Some of the highlighted trends include:

• Our workforce is ethnically and racially diverse, with 50.2 percent white, 29.1 percent of Hispanic origin, 13.0 percent Asian, and 5.3 percent African American.
  
• Men in the workforce outnumber women by more than two to one.
• Almost three-quarters of the industry’s workforce is in its prime working age (between 22 and 54 years old).
• Educational attainment is across the spectrum; 23 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 30 percent have some college, post-secondary certification or an associate’s degree, and just under 40 percent of all workers have high school credentials or less.

The LAEDC’s study also brought to light the industry’s impact on regional economies throughout California, including valuable tax revenues by county.  In Ventura County, the analysis calculated a total of $306.6 million in state and local taxes and a sum of $216.7 million in federal tax revenues.  This is revenue that can be used by local government to provide critical services to residents of the county.  Total jobs for our area in the oil and gas industry were nearly 6,000 which included direct, indirect, and induced employment.  Examples of some of these jobs the industry provides include engineers, information technology specialists, electronics technicians, and geologists.

Allan Zaremberg, California Chamber of Commerce president and CEO stated, “California’s oil and gas industry has been an engine of California’s growth for more than 100 years.  The industry sustains tens of thousands of well-paid middle class jobs, provides hundreds of millions of tax dollars for the support of state and local government, and provides the energy and much of the innovation that powers our economy.”

To read the entire study or download it, go to http://laedc.org/2017/06/08/oil-gas/.

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