The oil and gas industry has laid off more than 350,000 workers since fossil energy prices began to crash in mid-2014, and oilfield services companies have taken the biggest hit so far, according to a report by Houston-based Graves & Co.
Graves’ previous report, in November 2015, put total job losses at 250,000.
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The latest update shows the oilfield services sector with about 152,000 layoffs, followed by exploration and production at 80,000 and drilling at 52,000. Nearly 100,000 oil and gas workers in the United States, more than half of them in Texas, lost their jobs between October 2014 and January 2016, UPI reports, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
“For a long time, job cuts in [exploration and production] lagged behind the oilfield service, drilling, and supply sectors as oil and gas producers attempted to hold on to important talent,” said Graves & Co. President John Graves. “As the downturn has persisted beyond the expectations of many in the industry, the impetus to cut costs has significantly affected those responsible for finding, developing and producing oil and gas.”
