Musings: Oil Patch Unemployment Is Challenge For Industry's Future

To gain greater appreciation for where the layoffs are occurring, Exhibit 9 shows a plot of the four-week average for first time weekly unemployment applications in the leading oil shale states. The count reflects those claims filed in Colorado, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. The creator of the chart, which spans the period from 2000 to mid-March 2015, says he should have included West Virginia in the totals because after further research he learned that most of the state’s territory overlays the Marcellus and Utica shale formations that span much of Pennsylvania and part of Ohio as well. The problem in using West Virginia’s figures is that due to its extensive coal-mining activity the unemployment figures might be overstated as a result of the downturn in the coal-mining industry.

Musings: Oil Patch Unemployment Is Challenge For Industry's Future
Source: PoliticalCalculations.com

While the four-week average of first time weekly unemployment claims in these shale oil states has jumped up since October 2014, if we look at the 2008-2009 pattern, the recent rise seems to have only matched about 20% of that earlier increase. However, it has occurred in a shorter time span. The current increase has matched almost half of the rise from 2000-2001, but at a quicker pace. It is also worth noting that both of the earlier downturns coincided with officially designated economic recessions. This downturn doesn’t appear to show signs of being associated with a new U.S. recession, although the latest national economic statistics might belay that observation. The latest unemployment statistics for Texas show the early effects of the drop in oil prices as jobs were lost state-wide last month. If this downturn matches the 2008-2009 pattern then we have many more jobs to shed.


12

View Full Article

WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Mark Cooper  |  April 23, 2015
According to our internal tracker at Oil Consultants, there have been 117,000 reported layoffs in the media since December... Date Company Country Losses Acme 99 AIT 28 Apr-15 Apache International 350 Archer Ltd. 1,000 AST 69 Atlas Tube Inc. 35 Feb-15 Baker H International 10500 Jan-14 BHPB International 3000 Mar-15 BP International 1200 Cajun Cutters 2 Caterpillar 200 Chaparral Energy 121 Chevron 162 Civeo 1,000 CoP 230 Doepker Industries 58 Dresser-Rand 648 Enable Midstream 200 Enbridge 100 Ensign Energy Services 700 EOG Resources EOG +1.15% 150 ERVAZ 200 Mar-15 Exprogroup International 125 FMC Technologies FTI +7.5% 2,079 General Electric GE +1.09% 500 Jan-15 Halliburton International 9000 Helmerich & Payne HP +2.05% 2,130 Hercules Offshore 324 Mar-15 Husky International 1200 Husky Oil Sands 1,000 Key Energy Service 2,000 Laredo Petroleum 75 Lariat Services Inc. 265 Marathon Oil MRO +0.73% 400 MRC Global 270 Apr-15 Nabors International 5000 Newfield Exp 200 Nexen 400 OFS Energy Fund 150 Oilfield Trucking Solutions 93 Parker Drilling Company PKD -0.97% 270 Mar-15 Pemex mexico 10000 PostRock Energy PSTR +1.27% 14 Precision Drilling PDS +1.19% Corp. 1,000 PTC Seamless Tube Corp. 71 Quicksilver Resources 50 Range Resources RRC +1.56% 60 Sanjel 20 Dec-14 Santos International 520 sasol 1500 SBM Offshore 600 Apr-15 Schlumberger International 20000 Apr-15 Shell International 4700 Mar-15 Shell Canada 400 Feb-15 Statoil Norway 11500 Apr-15 Suncor International 1000 T&B Construction 20 Talisman 200 Talisman-Sinopec 300 Team TISI -0.02% Oil Tools 95 Tenaris 680 TimkenSteel 52 TMK IPSCO 248 Total 2,000 Mar-15 Transocean International 2700 Trican Well Services 125 Ultra Premium Oilfield Servi 78 US Steel X -0.27% 3,827 Vallourec Star 1,400 Weatherford 8,000 WireCo World Group 30 WPX Energy 80 Yates Petroleum 15


Most Popular Articles