What most don't realize, is there are more indirect jobs created outside the oil industry due to their purchase of equipment, material and labor, than direct hires. Steel mills, cable manufacture, valves, buildings, etc all get impacted.
For example:
Caterpillar is latest victim of sliding oil price
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3247811/posts
The maker of diggers and dozers direct exposure to the sector is equal to about $6.5 billion, or 12% of revenue, while its indirect exposure may be as much as 15% of revenues
I'm not denying that some will suffer from lower oil prices. But in a dynamic economy, more will benefit. It will cost less to manufacture and transport almost everything, and that too will work to the advantage of everyone.
Crying for relief from low oil prices is nothing more than special pleadings on behalf of a narrow special interest: oil producers and related industries and their workers. Those special interests have been rolling in the clover for the last half dozen years or more while the rest of us have struggled to make mortgage payments and keep food on the table. I think Schlumberger and T. Boone Pickens will survive a little belt tightening while the rest of us enjoy the jingle of a little more change in our pockets after paying for gasoline and heating oil.
It's all just catching up now.
I've done well...energy wise.
It's going to be hard...in the coming months.
Cheap energy means low demand....
Boom and bust...seems to never end.