Source: Fuel Fix | Collin Eaton | November 6, 2017

Texas oil companies have hired more than 30,000 workers over the past year, a sharp turnaround after they laid off a third of the industry's statewide workforce during the oil bust.

The number of Texas oil and gas workers reached more than 222,000 in September, up 16 percent from about 192,000 in the same month last year, the lowest point since the Great Recession in 2009.

At the peak of the oil boom in 2014, Texas had more 295,000 jobs, according to Karr Ingham, a Texas economist who studies the oil industry.

Ingham's Texas Petro Index, a measure of activity in the business of pumping oil from the earth, rose for the 10th consecutive month in September, to 181.4 points, up 21.4 percent than September 2016.

"Crude oil prices in Texas have been the essence of stability for more than a year," Ingham said in a statement. "Demand is beginning to show signs of recovery and foreign oil suppliers led by OPEC appear to be committed to maintaining announced production cuts."

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