By Ryan Holeywell January 30, 2015 Updated: January 30, 2015 1:14pm

Photo: Ryan Holeywell Tobias Read, CEO of Swift Worldwide Resources, says the oil industry job picture will get worse before it improves.

After more than a decade as an engineer with Schlumberger, Jack Robbins was surprised at his abrupt dismissal from the company in December.

Robbins and 9,000 others who lost their jobs at the oil filed services company were among the growing numbers of industry workers facing unemployment because of the falling price of crude.

"It was 'go to your desk, get your stuff, and get out,'" Robbins said. "I was paraded in front of the whole center. Talk about a walk of shame."

Robbins' experience represents the new reality for growing numbers oil and gas sector workers.

For the past few years, as the U.S. oil business surged and a barrel brought $100 or more, energy companies lamented the difficulty of finding qualified personnel to fill their ranks. That shortage of workers made employment in the oil and gas sector steady and lucrative.

But today, as oil prices plummet and show no signs of rebounding in the immediate future, employment in the energy sector is getting dicier.

"I've listened to vice presidents and even the CEO come in and whine about retention and ask 'what do we have to do to get people to stay,'" Robbins said. "After all the talk about people being so important - this was swift."

RELATED

Energy workers, get out in front of job cuts Economist says city's east and west sides could reverse roles

The rapid shift in job security continued this week as oil producers BP and ConocoPhillips announced unspecified numbers of layoffs, along with pay freezes for the employees who survive the cuts.

Schlumberger and its oil field services rival, Baker Hughes, earlier this year announced a combined 16,000 layoffs.

Shell, Halliburton and Apache also have said they'll cut undisclosed numbers of workers.

Karr Ingham, an economist who compiles a monthly index tracking oil industry activity, has projected that Texas alone could lose more than 40,000 upstream oil and gas jobs.

An estimated 215,100 people worked in the U.S. oil and gas extraction industry in October, the most recent snapshot available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The category ranged from technical professionals including geologists and engineers to oil field workers like roustabouts and wellhead pumpers. That was a 44 percent increase since 2007, before the surge in producing oil and gas from dense shale rock. Overall U.S. employment during the same time period remained virtually flat.

The oil and gas boom - which occurred as much of the rest of the U.S. economy remained sluggish in the wake of the global economic downturn in 2008 - put a shine on energy work as a safe bet. That's starting to change, and to catch workers unawares.

BUSINESS

Business calendar Sysco looks to capitalize on growing demand for Latin flavors As oil prices drop, oil jobs take the fall Franchises can provide head start in business Digest: Amazon's earnings please investors McDonald's new CEO faces onslaught of competition

"I didn't see it coming," said a Schlumberger worker laid off recently in California. That employee - and all the others quoted in this story besides Robbins - asked that their names not be used for fear of repercussions.

The 20-year California Schlumberger employee said oil and gas workers are well aware the industry is cyclical, but that the crest in recent years seemed firmer. The employee's team always seemed busy, and even as oil prices took a dive, the volume of work didn't slow down.

"I was productive, and I know I'm highly respected by my clients," the California worker said. "I live modestly, so I think I'll be OK. But emotionally, it's been pretty hard."

A Schlumberger spokesman declined to discuss layoff details.

Tobias Read, CEO of Swift Worldwide Resources, an oil and gas industry staffing firm, said the business is resetting after an abnormally flush run.

The U.S. energy sector flourished as high oil prices made shale drilling profitable, and the oil and gas companies had the ability to ramp up onshore quickly to capitalize on those prices. "We've been through a period of seven years of pretty much constant growth," Read said.

The same factors that caused the industry to ramp up so quickly are driving the slowdown now. Falling oil prices make shale drilling less profitable, and operations can be shut down quickly and easily.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was ticking up slightly Friday - $45.36 a barrel in midday trading - but has been on a fairly steady downward trend since July, when it was above $100.

Read said energy companies were reluctant to shed workers when oil prices started dropping in the second half of 2014. But with the slump continuing into the New Year with few foreseeable factors to reverse the decline, job losses probably will be pervasive across job types, Read said.

And those who already have lost jobs won't have much reason for optimism in the short-term.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Read said.

Michael Plante, a senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the oil price drop could slow the state's job growth from 3.6 percent last year to as little as 1.5 percent in 2015. "We might fall below the national average, in terms of job growth, which is atypical," Plante said.

So far, the most significant announced job cuts have hit oil field services workers.

And employees who remain feel on edge.

"We've all been trying to figure out what the hell is going on," said one Houston-area Baker Hughes employee. "It's obvious that something's happening, but we don't know what, to who, or how big."

Robbins, who has kept in touch with old colleagues, says they're nervous.

Though he got severance package, Robbins says, he's treating his search for employment as a full-time job in itself. But finding work is more difficult than it's been in the past. "It's a little bit tougher," Robbins said. "But I'd say the situation is not hopeless. I'm following any and every lead."

Read said energy sector workers who have lost their jobs will have to become flexible. Those most likely to find employment will be people willing to move to other parts of the country or overseas. And laid-off workers almost certainly will take a pay cut if they want to get back into the industry.

Some workers say they're ready to leave the oil and gas sector altogether.

An oil field worker in Montana said a regional services company laid off him and his colleagues earlier this month. In his case, the news didn't come as a shock. "I saw the writing on the wall before Thanksgiving," he said.

As oil prices dropped last year, he started saving money and paying off his credit cards in anticipation of losing his job. Now that it's finally happened, he said he's not struggling financially, but his old colleagues are. "One guy went back home to Texas, and his world is destroyed," he said. "He had a lot riding on this job. And now he has nothing. There's nothing left to go home to."

The Montana worker, who only was in the industry for a year, said he plans on completing a bachelor's degree in order to pursue a career in a different field. The oil industry, he said, "is just too volatile."

Ryan Holeywell

Energy Reporter, Houston Chronicle

4 Comments powered by:

Patrick Wheelock

So, let me get this straight. The oil companies are afraid of going broke because the price of oil drop in the past few months. The price above $2 is still higher than the average before the 3 fold increase since 2009 and the oil companies unashamedly reported hundreds of billions in profits each quarter for more than 5 years. The oil companies and now the white house appears to be hinting, we need to bring back $4.50 per gallon because "we can't allow thousands of jobs to be lost". Yet the ridiculous greedy price increases have cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs lost due to the increase in business costs across the country and those in the oil industry laughed at those lost jobs all the way to the bank. So, I have two questions... Where did the hundreds of billions in each quarters profits go, nobody thought of protecting the financial status of said oil companies??? Why are the oil workers jobs far more important than the millions of others in this country, and why is the average citizen expected to just live with less to support the oil workers lavish lifestyles??? They are already whispering about the possibility of adding a tax to be used to "keep the oil industry afloat" during these "hard times".... Are you kidding me??? Welcome to capitalism and supply and demand. It has been beat into the American tax payers heads to "use less, live within your means, lower your carbon foot print, etc...." and Americans did so and NOW they want to punish us for it!!! California's elected Einstein's are already trying to tax gas another $.75 or more per gallon AND add a per mile tax because "the state is losing revenue due to people driving less".... These %#*^%%$  threatened us to use less or else we would get taxed. Now that we are using less, we get taxed.

Michael Fjetland

Been there. Done that. I feel for those laid off. I went through the same thing in the Great Texas Oil Bust of the 80's. Went from flying the Concorde (first class) to losing it all. Still survived. I had to learn how to reinvent myself. I wrote about it in Better Times Ahead April Fool. Anyone worried about a lay off might get something out of it...http://bettertimesaheadaprilfool.com/Home_Page.html