Oil and gas extraction one of the highest paying U.S. industries

The oil and gas extraction industry had nearly 114,000 jobs in May 2025 and an annual mean wage of $122,890, making it one of the highest paying U.S. industries overall. Producing crude petroleum, extracting oil from oil shale and oil sands, and producing natural gas are among the activities performed in this industry.

The two largest occupations in oil and gas extraction were wellhead pumpers (12,190) and oil and gas service unit operators (10,010). These two occupations combined made up 19.5 percent of industry jobs. Other large occupations in oil and gas extraction included general and operations managers (6,710), petroleum engineers (5,900), accountants and auditors (5,040), and industrial machinery mechanics (4,480).

Nine of the 10 large occupations shown, including the two largest occupations, wellhead pumpers ($74,750) and oil and gas service unit operators ($74,550), had annual mean wages above the U.S. average of $69,770 across all industries and occupations. Several of the large occupations in oil and gas extraction had annual mean wages of about $200,000 or higher, including general and operations managers ($227,290), financial managers ($226,430), and geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers ($198,230).

These data are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. For more information, see the May 2025 OEWS data for oil and gas extraction. The oil and gas extraction industry does not include performing services on a contract or fee basis to support oil and gas operations, which are part of support activities for mining. Want to know more? See the Monthly Labor Review article “Occupational employment and wages in oil and gas industries, May 2024.”