The past few weeks there have been a lot of stories about, and interest in, shale industry jobs. When I compile the “top five most viewed stories” for the past week and the past month, I leave out of the list hits on non-article pages, like the Landowner’s directory, which usually receives as many or more reads as some MDN stories in a given week.

One item that caught my attention for this past week was the number of views for a calendar item—the first time I recall a calendar item getting more views than a story! The calendar item as for a job recruitment fair near Pittsburgh held yesterday: PIOGA Job Recruitment Expo – Washington, PA. That little calendar entry on MDN received the second most number of reads in the past seven days (731), although I did not include it in the “top 5” stories list below (I don’t include calendar items in that list, only stories).

I asked myself, why that calendar item? In digging through the web analytics, I found the vast majority of incoming visitors to that page came from Google searches, which says to me there was local media coverage in Pittsburgh for the job fair, and that coverage sent people scrambling to search for more details on the expo. Many people fire up Google to perform a search for information. The number one search phrase people used in Google to find more details for the expo, at least for the ones who came to MDN, was “pioga recruitment expo”. MDN’s calendar item is, as of today, the number two result for that search on Google. PIOGA themselves are the number one result.

There really is no mystery in why people are interested in shale gas jobs. The job-generating power of shale gas can not be overstated. It’s potential is huge. Over the past week we had the release of a study predicting 65,000 new jobs in Ohio from shale gas drilling by 2014—two short years away. New facilities are being built (see this article on Baker Hughes) creating even more jobs. And anecdotally, it seems almost daily in my own personal circle of family, friends, and acquaintances, I hear of someone who now works in the shale industry now. What’s so amazing about that? I live in New York, where there is no drilling! To be fair, I live about 15 miles from the border of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and there is a LOT of drilling happening there—and that’s where my family and friends are finding work. So even though New York is still stuck at the starting gate with respect to drilling, there are some New Yorkers who live near border areas in what is called the Southern Tier of New York who are benefiting from the drilling that happens in PA. Go PA!

With an abundance of new shale jobs, I wonder (and hence this week’s poll question), do either you, or someone you know (friend, family member, acquaintance) work for the shale gas industry? I would like to know how widespread this phenomenon is. Register your vote on the right side of any page on the website.

Last Week’s Poll Results

Actually, last week’s poll ran for two weeks. I wanted to know whether or not you have enough land to lease and if you do, if it’s now under lease for drilling. The poll found of those who own enough land to lease, it’s pretty close between those who have signed and those who have not—roughly half and half. Thanks for participating!

For those in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, is your land:

Leased for drilling (42%, 167 Votes)
Not leased for drilling (48%, 191 Votes)
Does not apply to me (10%, 40 Votes)

Total Voters: 398

Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus-related events for the next two weeks.

Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor

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