We previously have discussed the human toll associated with the layoffs, office closings, bankruptcies and other financial issues stemming from deflated oil and gas prices. But as one month of depressed prices leads to another, it is easy to slip into a malaise and forget the real life impacts.
Yesterday, Chesapeake made an announcement that shocked us out of our malaise and forced us to again recognize the lives being adversely affected – often severely – by the industry's troubles. Chesapeake announced that it was laying off 740 workers, or 15% of its workforce, including some 560 in Oklahoma City alone.
Reportedly, many of the laid off will receive severance and insurance packages, but we have to believe for most of those whose positions were terminated the future looks far more bleak and uncertain this morning than it did yesterday morning. We feel for each of them and their families, and we recognize the ripple effect this will have economically in the impacted communities.
The next time someone says it is a cyclical industry and prices will come back, take just a second to think of the 740 people (and countless others industry-wide) who no longer have jobs.
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