Since oil prices started falling a couple of years ago, energy firms have automated many repetitive, dangerous, and expensive tasks, which in turn has meant fewer blue collar jobs in the space. Products such as those from National Oilwell Varco automate the process of doing tasks like connecting hundreds of segments of drill pipe as they are shoved through miles of ocean water and oil-bearing rocks.
Bloomberg estimates that the oil price collapse eliminated 440,000 jobs, and anywhere from one-third to one-half of those jobs may never come back.
