Employment and Wages
Employment in Kansas' mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector grew by 5.1% in 2022, a large gain after it declined 13.5% in 2020 as employment declined by over 900 workers statewide. The industry's jobs remained flat from 2016 to 2019 after contracting significantly from 2014 to 2016. Nearly all of the employment gains in the industry were in the support activities sector, which grew by 13.2%, an increase of 352 jobs. These were, however, offset by the 4.4% decline in mining (except oil and gas) jobs.
In April 2020, oil prices reached their lowest level since 1999 as prices declined by 72.3% relative to December 2019. Prices rebounded sharply in late 2021 and 2022. In 2022 oil supply was disrupted due to the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. Prices began to contract back to 2021 levels by December 2022, and have remained flat throughout the year. Despite stagnant employment growth, wage growth was solid across all sectors of the industry. Overall industry wages grew by 12.1% in 2022 to $67,386, primarily driven by 18.8% wage growth in oil and gas extraction and 14.2% growth in support activities wages. Non-oil and gas mining wages grew in 2022, but by a more modest 2.2%. Oil production declined by 1.3% in 2021, following a 14.9% decline in 2020, marking Kansas's seventh consecutive year of production declines. However, in 2022, gas production rebounded with a 1.8% increase. Likewise, gas production fell 5.2% in 2021 after a 8.7% contraction in 2021, marking the state's fourteenth consecutive year of production decline.
