The United States labor market may finally be recovering, but, as the chart above by AEI visiting scholar Mark Perry shows, it is largely due to job gains in the oil and gas sector of the economy. Since January 2007, employment in the oil and gas sector has grown by 33.5 percent, while employment in the rest of the economy has fallen by 3.3 percent. This energy job growth has occurred almost entirely on state and private lands, meaning President Obama can take no credit for it. In fact, his policies, from EPA regulations to drilling bans, have done nothing but hurt the oil and gas economy.
