A new Penn State study says that natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania has the potential to create an additional 212,000 new jobs over the next 10 years. The study is an update to one first issued in July 2009.
According to the Penn State study, the continued ramp-up of exploration activities throughout Pennsylvania over the next decade is expected to bring online an additional 13.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, nearly seven times the amount that Pennsylvanians currently use on a daily basis. The increase in daily natural gas output results in the creation of more than 211,000 new jobs in the state, along with $18.85 billion in value added resources for the state’s economy. The study also finds that for every $1 invested in the state by Marcellus Shale producers, $1.90 of total economic output is generated as a result — a phenomenon that’s come to be known as the “Marcellus Multiplier” among the hundreds of individual industries up and down the Marcellus supply chain that continue to benefit from this work. •
