Daily Times

More than 100,000 jobs were lost in the US oil exploration and production industry between March and August this year, mostly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Another 35,000 jobs were shed in the downstream segment. But that’s not the end of the bad news. Most of these jobs are not coming back at least until next year. Some could be gone forever. These are the highlights of a Deloitte report released earlier this month. The job loss or its pace—the fastest ever—is not surprising. The effect of the pandemic on the industry was quick and devastating, with oil production in Texas alone dropping by 13 percent in the three months from March to May alone. To compare, during the last price crisis, oil production in the state declined by 13.7 percent over 18 months, according to the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers’ Karr Ingham, the creator of the Texas Petro Index. Such a fast contraction of activity resulted in an equally rapid loss of jobs, and the growing number of bankruptcies also contributed to the job losses. If not for the pace of the events, this would be business as usual. The oil industry always sheds jobs during the low phase of its cycle.