New high paying jobs are being created, right now, in the Marcellus Shale—that is, where drilling is happening. Here’s an example from Pleasant Gap, PA:
This time last year, Eric Klinger, 19, made his living delivering pizzas. His friend Matt Bartholomew, 20, worked in a factory that manufactured pharmaceutical products.
Now, after a six-month course, they work for Halliburton, driving trucks, hauling supplies and doing some manual labor at natural gas drilling sites. They both started at salaries of between $45,000 and $55,000 a year—higher than the wages of most Pennsylvanians, according to U.S. census data.*
A 2009 study by Penn College says it takes more that 150 jobs to drill a single well. Some of those jobs are manual labor, some are highly skilled, requiring years of education and experience:
[T]he study says 4 percent of Marcellus Shale jobs are for lawyers, 3 percent are for engineers and 3 percent are for geologists.*
*The Free Lance-Star (Feb 7) – Pennsylvania workers finding a future in gas drilling