API announced today that U.S. well completions--the number of oil and natural gas wells and dry holes--in the fourth quarter of 2009 climbed by 19 percent over the third quarter.

Hazen Arafa, director of API's statistics, said, "We are certainly seeing U.S. drilling activity picking up with the economic recovery, but there is still a long way to go before activity begins to near the pace of 2008." Overall, well completions were 37 percent lower last year than in 2008.

Although fourth quarter well completions and some other economic indicators seem to point to an improving economy, many observers note that job growth is lagging.

As reported by The Foundry, Heritage Foundation's blog, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that markedly fewer jobs are being created. The number of job openings at the end of each month has declined to 2.4 million, which is the lowest level since the government began gathering this information in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey ten years ago.

As James Sherk explains, "...small business owners do not plan to increase hiring or investment in the coming months. Until that happens unemployment will remain high."

The oil and natural gas industry supports more than 9 million jobs and could create new jobs if it were allowed to develop more domestic oil and natural gas. A study shows that opening off-limits areas to the industry could lead to tens of thousands of new jobs, generate an estimated $1.7 trillion in revenues for the federal, state and local governments, and greatly improve the nation's energy security.

And these benefits could occur without spending taxpayers' money in a stimulus plan.

It's time to put the oil and natural gas industry to work--for all Americans.