Liam Denning, Columnist

That Was Quick! Shale Jobs Growth Has Ended

The E&P industry’s struggles and shorter cycles lead to whipsaws in hiring.

January 10, 2020 at 5:03 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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We’re not even two weeks into 2020 and the oil market has ripped through a cycle already. Courtesy of geopolitical spiciness in the Middle East, prices jumped, had a little think about it, and then slumped back into the easy chair. Still, with Iran’s nuclear deal unraveling and the U.S. election spooling up in the background, we can expect more mini-dramas as the year unfolds.

But one cycle has likely come to an end already, if Friday’s job numbers are any guide.