Distributor sales reflect oil & gas industry layoffs
As FDO goes to press, the energy sector slump continues due to plummeting oil prices. And that’s not good news for safety distributor and PPE sales, which tend to mirror headcount levels. One piece of good news for distributors: headcount and the resulting demand for PPE is on the upswing in the U.S. non-residential construction sector. Infrastructure projects – rebuilding bridges and highways for example – abound.
Since oil prices began a deep dive a year ago, crude production in the U.S. has held up relatively well—even as once booming parts of the country have seen a sharp pullback in investment and new drilling. Since peaking late last year, the number of rigs in use has been cut in half, prompting many oil and exploration companies to lay off many of the workers hired during the energy boom that followed the Great Recession.