At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 1.5 million people in the United States were employed in the petroleum industry.
If Obama thinks he is going to increase energy productivity and at the same time increase the number employed by in the energy industry by "millions" he doesn't understand that the growth of America has occurred because of the increased use of capital which resulted in less labor intensive industries.
Hey Bam,
If you would like to understand this, think about farming. From The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy:
American agriculture and rural life underwent a tremendous transformation in the 20th century. Early 20th century agriculture was labor intensive, and it took place on a large number of small, diversified farms in rural areas where more than half of the U.S. population lived. These farms employed close to half of the U.S. workforce, along with 22 million work animals, and produced an average of five different commodities. The agricultural sector of the 21st century, on the other hand, is concentrated on a small number of large, specialized farms in rural areas where less than a fourth of the U.S. population lives. These highly productive and mechanized farms employ a tiny share of U.S. workers and use 5 million tractors in place of the horses and mules of earlier days.
1900--41 percent of workforce employed in agriculture
1930--21.5 percent of workforce employed in agriculture;
Agricultural GDP as a share of total GDP, 7.7 percent
1945--16 percent of the total labor force employed in agriculture;
Agricultural GDP as a share of total GDP, 6.8 percent
1970--4 percent of employed labor force worked in agriculture;
Agricultural GDP as a share of total GDP, 2.3 percent
2000/02--1.9 percent of employed labor force worked in agriculture (2000); Agricultural GDP as a share of total GDP (2002),0.7 percent
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