Bjørn Christian Bjørnsen, division director for engineering at Experis. Photo: Experis
The corona crisis has affected the oil price very negatively and affected the Norwegian continental shelf. According to ManpowerGroup’s labor market barometer, pain will get worse. Every quarter, companies are asked whether they expect downsizing or downsizing in the coming quarter. Those who are to be downsized are deducted from those who are to be downsized. The number you are left with is called “net staffing prospects” and is a leading indicator of employment going forward.
For employers in oil and gas, the net staffing outlook for the fourth quarter is minus 15 per cent. Employers are now far more pessimistic than they were for the third quarter, when the staffing outlook was 1 percent, according to the barometer of ManpowerGroup.
– There is great uncertainty in the industry. Everyone thinks the activity will go down, the question is how deep the fall will be, whether it will be a correction or a new mass downsizing, says Bjørn Bjørnsen, division director for engineering at Experis, in a press release.
Bjørnsen believes that many in the industry fear that the corona decline may be worse than the downturn in 2015, when 45,000 lost their jobs. That autumn, the net staffing outlook for the oil industry was minus 5 per cent.
Help packages are not enough
It has been known for a long time that the level of activity on the Norwegian shelf will go down. Statistics Norway’s latest forecasts are that investments will fall by 15 per cent next year.
– We were already on our way to an announced reduction. Then came the double bang with the corona. In April and May, it looked really gloomy, says Bjørnsen in the press release.
He says that the signals from the industry have been more positive after the government’s crisis package, but that the situation in the long term is still worrying.
– The industry has largely recovered from the first corona shock. But one fails to do anything about the underlying reduction in activity. It has ripple effects for the whole society.
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