HOUSTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- A lack of crude oil pipelines in west Texas of the United States has slowed down the growth in the labor market, local media reported Monday.

Houston Chronicle, the Houston-based newspaper, reported that the Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico has remained the nation's top producing oil field, but the lack of crude oil pipelines out of the remote region has slowed growth in the labor market.

The report quoted the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas as saying that employment in the Permian region grew by 1.4 percent between September and October to more than 184,000, pushing employment to record levels. But the pace of job growth has slowed significantly from the 11 percent growth rate in the first half of 2018.

The lack of pipelines has led to a slowdown in parts of the oil and gas industry in the region. Oil and gas drillers have increased the number of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells, which are waiting to be hydraulic fractured, or fracked, to begin production. There are more than 3,800 DUC wells in the Permian region, nearly half of the 8,545 DUC wells in the United States.

The crude oil production in the Permian region has continued to push into record high and is estimated to reach 3.7 million barrels per day in December, data from the U.S. Department of Energy showed. In December, the shale play's output will have increased by more than 840,000 barrels per day from a year ago.