Mar 27, 2014 3 min read

A U.S. Census Bureau report released this week that looks at the U.S. economy since the Great Recession notes a trend that’s been well-documented in Western Pennsylvania.

According to the bureau’s 2012 Economic Census Advance Report, released Wednesday, the natural resources segment of the economy was a prime driver from 2007 to 2012, which includes the recession that began in late 2007 and ended in 2010.

The report notes that during the five-year period, revenue for mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction grew 34.2 percent to $555.2 billion. According to the report, the sector was among the fastest growers in employment as the number of workers rose 23.3 percent to 903,641.

“The growth shown by the 2012 economic census in the (sector) supports the population growth we see in parts of the Great Plains,” said Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson, in reference to the employment boom in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale region.

But Thompson could have just as easily been referencing the impact of exploration and development of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale strata in Western Pennsylvania.

The Census Bureau’s findings were echoed on the same day in Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance as it reported its annual scorecard of economic development wins for the 10-county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania it represents.

PRA President Dewitt Peart noted Wednesday that the first Marcellus Shale gas well in the region was drilled in 2004, and by 2009, the Marcellus Shale opportunity had emerged in full force. Investments focused on new companies coming into the region or existing ones expanding.

While energy and specifically the natural gas segment of the sector continues in full force and is among the top five economic drivers in the region, Peart noted that while the arrival of natural gas exploration companies has now settled, he added that more of the industry’s capital investments are now tied to midstream infrastructure.

“We see that as a maturation of the industry, and that’s not a bad thing,” he said, adding that the wet gas being extracted contains ethane used in a myriad of manufacturing applications from chemicals to plastics.

While midstream projects will help to produce more usable products like ethane, he said, adding the alliance is anticipating the development of downstream projects in the form of ethane cracking plants that are seen as a way to grow the region’s manufacturing opportunities.

The Census Bureau noted its 2012 Economic Census Advance Report is the first in a series of industry and geographic area data products, which contains statistics at the national level only for broad industry sectors of the economy, such as energy. New to the economic census and available later this year, will be information on emerging industries, including solar, wind, geothermal and biomass electric power generation.

Among other findings in Wednesday’s economic census report:

• The retail trade sector had the most businesses in 2012 (nearly 1.1 million), while the utilities sector had the least (17,804).

• Wholesale trade, manufacturing and retail trade remained the largest sectors in the U.S. economy. Wholesale trade businesses reported more than $7 trillion in receipts in 2012, and increase of about 10 percent from the 6.5 trillion reported in 2007.

• The health care and social assistance sector continued to have the most employees with more than 18 million in 2012, an increase of more than 10 percent of 1.8 million people from 2007. This was the highest numerical increase of employees in any sector published in the advance report.

• Among the service-related sectors, accommodation and food services sectors reported the lowest payroll per employee in 2012 at $16,374.