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October 29, 2020

Exxon is cutting 1,900 US jobs as oil prices crumble again

By Matt Egan, CNN Business

ExxonMobil is cutting jobs at home and overseas as oil prices tumble on coronavirus fears.

Exxon announced Thursday that it will cut about 1,900 jobs in the United States, mostly at its headquarters in Houston, through layoffs and voluntary programs. The company said the cost cutting is the result of a years-long reorganization that has been accelerated by the pandemic.

All told, Exxon plans to shrink its global workforce of contractors and employees by more than 14,000 by the end of 2022. That would amount to a 15% reduction from Exxon's 2019 total workforce of more than 88,000.

The news comes as oil prices drop sharply on renewed worries about the intensifying pandemic. US crude plunged below $35 a barrel Thursday, marking a new four-month low.

Cheap oil is crushing Exxon's share price, which has been cut in half this year. Once the world's largest public company, Exxon has been surpassed by Zoom in market value. Today, Exxon is worth about $136 billion, compared with $140 billion for Zoom, the upstart video platform.

In another symbol of the company's startling decline, Exxon was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in August, where it had been a member for almost a century.

Exxon previously announced about 1,600 job cuts in Europe as well as a voluntary program in Australia.

"ExxonMobil's announcement about thousands of job cuts is another log on the bonfire that's been oil and gas employment in 2020," Jeff Bush, president of oil-and-gas recruiting firm CSI Recruiting, told CNN Business.

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