Pa. oil and gas jobs down 32 percent since last year

• Marie Cusick
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  Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

Jobs in Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry declined 32 percent in the second quarter of 2016, compared to the same time period last year, new state data show.
The Department of Labor and Industry counts 19,623 people employed directly in the oil and gas industry, compared to 28,926 in the second quarter of 2015. It’s consistent with figures the department released earlier this year, showing drillers shed roughly a third of their workforce between the beginning of 2015 and 2016 amid low commodity prices.
People employed in related industries fared slightly better. The data show jobs associated with the Marcellus Shale declining by 27 percent, dropping from 72,675 to 52,531.
Despite the decline, there are still about twice as many oil and gas jobs in Pennsylvania as there were before the Marcellus Shale boom took off.
Earlier this year, a federal analysis showed oil and gas jobs across the country declining by 26 percent, after peaking at 538,000 in 2014.

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