The tragedy of Exxon continues . On Thursday , the companysaidit expects to lay off roughly 14,000 workersover the next year . The immense reduction total even as it pays out shareholders , albeit at a flat level for the first metre in almost four decades .
The tumult hitting what was once the big , baddest oil fellowship in the U.S. shows how the pandemic has speed the nascent decline of petroleum into a somersault downhill dip . It also instance how the companies still standing will in all probability prioritise shareowner over prole until the bitter end .
The layoff come amid a record slump in oil demand , which has sped up movement already underway before the pandemic . Exxon tell in apress releasethere will be roughly 1,900 layoff in the U.S. , mostly at its headquarters in Houston . More layoff are expected globally through next year , resulting in a 15 % lessening in its hands of declarer and full - time employee .

Workers walk in the Nihran Bin Omar field north near Basra, Iraq.Photo: Nabil al-Jurani (AP)
https://gizmodo.com/gas-stoves-are-the-scariest-thing-in-the-kitchen-1845467748
It ’s a immense low point for a companionship that has had plenty over the past year . The flashpoint in Exxon ’s autumn includedropping out of the Dow Jones , miss the crownof the biggest oil company in the U.S.,losing monumental sum of moneyearlier this year , andfacing a write - downon a one-fifth of its rock oil reserves . Oh , and itgot its hindquarters suedfor lying about climate variety ( again ) . Oh , and also getting rope into aweird Trump mass meeting soliloquy .
The latter likely had no effect on the company away from getting it drag out on Twitter . But the pandemic has had a real impact , hastening Exxon ’s decline , but the company has been glide downward for years . Part of its problem has been doubling down on oil , which has made the economy buzz along for decades ( thanks in part to Exxon ’s said prevarication ) . A Carbon Trackeranalysisreleased on Wednesday shows the company ’s investment in geographic expedition and resource- and carbon - intensive projects toy a role in Exxon ’s declivity since 2014 . The account note investors “ would have been better off putting their Johnny Cash under the mattress ” over the past six years . Climate change means the world needs to speedily sunset the use of oil or face up unspeakable horror , and will further constrain Exxon ’s future tense as long as it focuses on vegetable oil as its main means of making money .

Exxon is hardly alone in layoffs , though its overall totals are among the steepest in the industry . originally this twelvemonth , BP announced it would lay off 10,000 proletarian as it transition to an “ energy ” company , a new fresh hell of greenwashing . At the time , theCEO called itthe “ right thing ” to do . With the end of vegetable oil now derive up over the horizon , it ’s more vital than ever to have a programme for affected worker who are about to or already are losing their living .
There ’s no word yet on how Exxon CEO Darren Woods views the layoff , but it stand to reasonableness the troupe would n’t be doing them if it did n’t seem right for its strategy . Which also stand for its decision on Wednesday topay dividendsout to shareowner is evidently the right affair to do as well . The company has reportedly beenfiguring out how to do sosince July despite the drop curtain in need and relatively low rock oil cost .
In doing so , it shows what Exxon really value . Along with itsfive - yr calamity of a climate planleaked earlier this month , it shows Exxon is intent on proceed to extract oil and expand its petrochemical business to ante up out shareholder at the disbursement of workers and the satellite . But even those dividends may go out if it continues down that path .

“ Exxon has hung onto the dividend but reduce first employee pensions and now jobs , ” Paul Spedding , a inquiry advisor at Carbon Tracker who authored the analytic thinking , said in an emailed command . “ The volatile nature of employment in a cyclical industry play up the motivation to plan ahead as the world moves off dodo fuels . Exxon ’s plan to keep increase yield may run to more surd metre for shareholders and worker . ”
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