FWW's new report stresses that"the public and policymakers are being misled by deceptive models and inflated numbers that do not add up."
The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association claimed that halting fracking on public lands would cost 60,000 jobs. But total oil and gas employment in the state is only about 20,000, or 2.6% of the workforce. Experts predict that jobs in the industry, which fell by about 25% in 2020, will not return. FWW argues that these"outlandish jobs claims have one goal: to hype the scope and impact of the oil and gas industry."
One of the most misleading aspects of industry jobs analysis is the conflation of direct jobs with indirect and induced jobs. Direct jobs are positions directly within a given industry. Indirect jobs are those within the supply chain that supports that industry, while induced jobs are positions supported by wages from both direct and indirect jobs. Indirect and induced jobs account for nearly 75% of the top-line numbers that some oil and gas companies are referencing.