Pipelines are under construction in the Great Plains, Midwest and South. While a major new project can create 10,000 or more jobs in construction states, 70% of the pipeline-related jobs reflecting 30,000 positions necessary to support a new project are spread across nearly every state in the Nation. Manufacturing is reviving in the Midwest to support the pipeline and energy sectors. Pipeline operators are headquartered in the South, Midwest, Great Plains and Northeast.
Jobs That Can Support A Family
Pipeline jobs are good-paying jobs with wages and benefits that will support a family. A single major pipeline construction project can generate over 42,000 jobs paying over $2 billion in worker salary and benefits. That works out to an average $47,000 per worker, with nearly 25,000 of those jobs paying between $50,000 and $100,000 in salary and benefits per worker. Jobs needed to build a new pipeline aren’t just in construction. They create positions in manufacturing, professional services, finance & insurance, and healthcare – all with good-paying salaries.
Professional and Service Sector Jobs
- New pipelines create thousands of professional and service sector jobs on top of traditional construction and manufacturing jobs. Analysis of a major proposed pipeline project showed that it would create 5,100 professional service and management jobs in in engineering, architecture, planning and contracting. Over 2,000 professionals in finance and insurance would gain jobs supporting a new pipeline, as would 2,700 health and social service professionals, 2,300 workers in administrative and waste services, and 5,700 accommodations and food services workers.
Professional and service sector jobs created by pipeline construction are also good-paying jobs. Average wages for professional services position supporting a pipeline were estimated at $67,000. Finance and insurance providers could expect to take home nearly $60,000 in pay, and healthcare and social service workers would average over $52,000 in wages from a new pipeline.
Manufacturing Jobs from Pipelines
Pipelines Deliver Raw Materials to U.S. Manufacturers
Pipelines collect natural gas liquids (NGLs) from wells in places like eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and Texas and send them to U.S. manufacturers: ethane to make plastics, butane for lighters, and pentane to make Styrofoam. Experts predict America’s shale gas boom will supply by pipeline enough manufacturing feed-stocks to spur 17,000 new high-paying jobs in the U.S. chemical industry, 195,000 jobs down the manufacturing supply chain, and 230,000 indirect jobs created by these new investments.
Consumer Goods Made from Pipeline Delivered Feedstock
U.S. manufacturing workers making everything from beverage containers to laundry baskets, carpet, tires and clothing depend upon these raw material feed stocks delivered by pipeline. U.S. workers benefit at every stage of the process, from drilling wells and sending production to pipelines, processing raw materials into usable feed-stocks, processing feed-stocks into base fibers, resins, and materials, and manufacturing final products and packaging.
Pipeline Construction Spurs U.S. Manufacturing Jobs
U.S. workers making steel pipe, pumps and valves will all benefit from pipeline construction. For example, construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will support 4,600 manufacturing jobs delivering $309 million in worker salary and benefits. Manufacturing states, suffering until recently, are rebounding with new steel mills opening in Pennsylvania and reopening or expanding in Ohio. A steel mill in Arkansas produced much of the pipe for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Pipeline Projects Create Thousands of Construction Jobs
- A single major pipeline construction project is estimated to employ nearly 7,000 construction workers and provide workers and their families over $400 million in salary and benefits.
- Over 500 workers are needed to construct each 100 mile section of pipeline. Pipelines also need pumping stations constructed every 50 miles. Heavy equipment operators, laborers, welders, Teamsters, foremen, engineers and quality control personnel are all needed to construct a pipeline.
Labor Supports Major Pipeline Construction
“The Laborer’s International Union of America (LIUNA) strongly supports the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline…This pipeline will create millions of hours of work for the members of our unions, with good wages and benefits. For many of the Laborers, this projects is not just a pipeline; it is in fact a life-line. The construction sector has been particularly hit hard by the economic recession. The unemployment rate in the construction industry reached over 27% in 2010, and joblessness in construction remains far higher than any industry or sector, with over 1 million construction workers currently unemployed in the United States. Too many hard-working Americans are out of work, and the Keystone XL pipeline will change that dire situation for thousands of them.