AUSTIN – The Texas Workforce Commission has released employment data through April 2026, showing that upstream oil and gas employment increased by 400 jobs in April compared with the revised March data. This amounts to two months of consecutive job increases since February.
Total upstream employment stood at 193,200 jobs in April 2026. Relative to the same month one year earlier, employment is down by 7,400 jobs, representing a drop of 3.7 percent year-over-year. Employment levels declined gradually during the period, corresponding with softening oil prices. However, this trend showed a modest reversal as oil prices increased and Texas rig counts recently posted modest gains.
“The men and women in oil and gas continue to perform at very high levels, despite the uncertainty ushered in by the unrest in the Middle East,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association. “Our goal is for Texas to continue to deliver the power that powers our nation and the world, and to maintain our competitive edge through continued sound policies that promote growth when market conditions provide the right signals.”
The upstream sector involves oil and natural gas extraction and excludes other industry sectors such as refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities, which support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs across Texas. The employment shown also includes “Support Activities for Mining,” which is mostly oil and gas-related but also includes some small amount of other types of mining.