Restoring Jobs

Energy Saves the Day Expediting the approval process for liquefied natural gas exports will do much to help our bottom line. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council released a report titled the “Benefits of Natural Gas Production and Exports for U.S. Small Businesses: Nationally and Key States.” The findings indicate that while much of the economy was reeling from the turbulent downturn following 2008, increased natural gas production has been bolstering growth, especially among small businesses. Between 2005 and 2012, the U.S. economy lost, on a net basis, more than 378,000 jobs across all sectors. During the same time, energy production and the industries that directly support it created more than 293,000 positions. And that doesn’t include the ripple effect that reached even further – the jobs created in other segments of the economy because of increased demand for goods and services in non-energy industries. Also, lower energy overhead can free up resources that businesses can use for hiring. Those gains were very often realized among America’s small and midsize businesses, for which elected officials constantly express great concern. It’s not often recognized, but smaller enterprises comprise much of the country’s energy structure. From 2005 to 2011, more than 95 percent of the companies in the five vital energy industries examined in the report – drilling, extraction, construction and infrastructure, operational support and equipment manufacturing – employed 500 or fewer workers.