Unemployment claims: First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending April 23 decreased from the previous week’s total, the Associated Press reports. The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims fell to 2,684 from the previous week’s total of 2,791. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,737. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,739 from the previous week’s total of 2,692. Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending April 23 increased to 22,687 compared to 22,685 the previous week. The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 22,505 from the previous week’s average of 22,533.
Jobs gone: Chevron Corp. plans to shed 8,000 jobs, or 12% of its workforce, by the end of the year as anemic oil prices make it too expensive to keep many drilling rigs in the field, executives said today. FuelFix.com reports the No. 2 U.S. oil company has already cut more than 4,000 of those permanent jobs and trimmed another 6,500 contractors since the downturn began in the summer of 2014. Chevron executives had previously said the company would cut a total 7,000 jobs. Chevron lost $725 million in the first three months of the year, its first quarterly loss in more than 20 years. Cutting jobs is part of the industry’s desperate effort to curb costs while companies pay off a huge debt pile taken out in the days of $100 oil. FuelFix.com has the full story.
Losses continue: Louisiana lost two more rigs this week, bringing the state’s total number of active oil and gas rigs down to 45, according to Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes. Both losses were land rigs—one in the north Louisiana and the other in the south. Offshore rigs remain steady at 23, with south Louisiana land and inland water rigs holding at four each. Fourteen land rigs remain in North Louisiana. Around this time last year, the state had 72 active oil and gas rigs. Business Insider reports that amid depressed energy prices, the U.S. oil rig count fell to a fresh six-year low this week, by 11 to 332. The tally of gas rigs dropped by 1 to 87, taking the total rig count to 420. A year ago, 905 rigs were active. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. The previous low of 488 set in 1999 was eclipsed March 11, and has continued to plunge. When Baker Hughes released its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, it said it expects the North American rig count to stabilize in the second half of this year. It also cautioned that this doesn’t mean drilling activity will meaningfully increase.
