Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of the Keystone XL

“The purpose of this briefing paper was to examine claims made by TransCanada Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute that, if constructed, TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline will generate enough employment to kick-start important sections of the US economy through the creation of tens of thousands—perhaps even hundreds of thousands—of good, well-paying jobs for American workers.

This briefing paper raised a number of questions regarding the jobs claims promoted by the industry, questions that were serious enough to generate a high level of skepticism regarding the value of KXL as an important source of American jobs. With national unemployment levels …([as of] September 2011) around 9 percent, and the real unemployment figures considerably higher, jobs are desperately needed both to sustain families and to help the broader economy. However, it was our assessment—based on the publicly available data—that the construction of KXL will create far fewer jobs in the US than its proponents have claimed and may actually destroy more jobs than it generates” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

• “The project will create no more than 2,500–4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State Department” (p.2). • “The company’s claim that KXL will create 20,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs in the U.S is not substantiated” (p.2). • “The industry’s claim that KXL will create 119,000 total jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) is based on a flawed and poorly documented study commissioned by TransCanada (The Perryman Group study). Perryman wrongly includes over $1 billion in spending and over 10,000 person-years of employment for a section of the Keystone project in Kansas and Oklahoma that is not part of KXL and has already been built. • KXL will not be a major source of US jobs, nor will it play any substantial role at all in putting Americans back to work. Even if the Perryman figures were accurate, and all of the workers for the next phase of the project were hired immediately, the US seasonally adjusted unemployment rate would remain at 9.1 percent—exactly where it is now” (p.2). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Skinner, Lara; Sweeney, Sean; Goodman, Ian; Rowan, Brigid
• Organizational Author(s): Global Labor Institute, ILR School, Cornell University and The Goodman Group, Ltd.
• Funding Source: Global Labor Institute, ILR School, Cornell University
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies