Oil Paychecks Set a Record Even as Shale Industry Consolidates

Average hourly earnings for front-line oil and gas workers rose 0.5% from March to $44.67, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. Compared with a year ago, oil pay is up 3.2%. The strength in wages matched a national trend, pushing back bets for Federal Reserve rate cuts.

The US oil industry is in the midst of major consolidation, with the sector’s five biggest deals in the past 12 months totaling almost $200 billion in debt and equity. As shareholders demand growth in returns, oil bosses are buying their rivals to cut costs and extend the life of their assets. But those planned cost reductions have yet to impact workers in a significant way.

The overall number of workers employed in the industry rose less than 1% on a month-over-month basis to 119,900 in May. The jobless rate in oil and natural gas did climb to 3.1% in May on an unadjusted basis, compared with 1.8% a year earlier.