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The results of a recent study show activity in the Marcellus Shale is going to create many jobs in central and northcentral Pennsylvania.

However, a majority of the jobs will not exist after the drilling and well completion portion of shale development has been completed, said Larry L. Michael, Pennsylvania College of Technology's Work

force and Economic Development executive director.

Michael spoke at the college during an economic summit hosted by the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce about findings of the Marcellus Shale Workforce Needs Assessment. The study was performed by the college in partnership with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, he said.

"Eighty-three percent of the jobs are going to go away," he said. "That is going to have a tremendous impact."

According to Michael, a single gas well requires 410 workers from 50 different occupations to complete.

The hours worked by those workers equal slightly more than 11.5 full-time jobs over the course of year, he said.

Only .17 jobs are created during the production, or long-term, phase of natural gas development, he said. So, for every 100 gas wells in production, 17 jobs full-time jobs will be created, he said.

Still, many jobs could be created because of the potential that thousands of wells could be drilled before the play is fully developed, he said.

Michael said when people think of gas development, they think of the drilling phase of development. That, however, is a relatively small part, time-wise, of the process, encompassing about three weeks, he said.

"Once the drilling is done, jobs related to that segment will be gone," he said.

Although there are other developable natural gas fields in the United States, Michael said only one - the Marcellus Shale - is seeing growth in spite of low wholesale gas prices.

"We are hearing across the board that the Marcellus Shale is the place to be," he said.

Not only that, but the central and northcentral regions of the state are the areas of focus for gas exploration companies, he said.

While the southwestern part of the state, where most of the drilling has occurred, is seeing a decrease in the number of new drilling permits, this part of the state is seeing a corresponding increase in permits, he said.

Michael said it will be a challenge to educate potential workers about the needs of the gas industry, where it is not uncommon to work 28 days straight, and then take two weeks off.

"The biggest problem in the industry is that our workforce culture is not the workforce culture of the industry," he said. "Our culture is 8 to 5 with a break."

The result is a 170 percent turnover rate in the industry, he said.

"Most of us don't even want to think about numbers like that," he said.

Michael said workers from idle rigs elsewhere in the country will probably come to the area to work on gas wells. Once the price of gas goes back up and drilling begins again nationwide, those workers will return to their home states to work, leaving job openings for trained local workers.

Commissioner Rebecca A. Burke said there are questions about how the industry and its transient worker population will impact local roads, school districts and health services.

Burke said there is no taxing mechanism in place for school districts and local government to pay for those impacts.

However, Marcellus Shale development is the silver lining inside the dark cloud of today's economy, Chamber President Vincent Matteo said.

"It will effect economic development, particularly industrial development for years and years to come," Matteo said.