The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the oil and natural gas extraction industry employed nearly 114,000 workers in May 2025 and had an annual mean wage of $122,890. That placed the industry among the highest-paying sectors in the United States. The category includes activities such as crude petroleum production, oil shale and oil sands extraction, and natural gas production.
The largest occupations in the sector were wellhead pumpers, with 12,190 jobs, and oil and gas service unit operators, with 10,010 jobs. Together, those two roles represented 19.5% of industry employment. Other major job categories included general and operations managers, petroleum engineers, accountants and auditors, industrial machinery mechanics, roustabouts, supervisors, geoscientists, and financial managers.
Most of the largest oil and gas extraction occupations had annual mean wages above the U.S. average of $69,770 across all jobs and industries. General and operations managers earned an average of $227,290, while financial managers averaged $226,430 and geoscientists averaged $198,230. For readers tracking oil and gas royalties and energy markets, the data highlights the scale and compensation levels tied to domestic production activity.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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