Unemployment report doesn’t mention BP job losses

In an odd sequence of events this past week, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy heralded November as the fourth straight month of record low unemployment in the state, while BP Alaska announced hundreds of employees lose their jobs with sale of the company to Hilcorp.

“This trend of low unemployment shows increasing opportunities for job seekers in Alaska’s growing economy,” Dunleavy said.

According to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, November 2019’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at a record low of 6.1 percent statewide.

Dunleavy’s announcement on Dec. 20 came hours after BP Alaska acknowledged in its Dec. 19 letter to the same agency that with the sale of its entire Alaska business to Hilcorp, 636 of BP’s Alaska workforce of 1,567 people would get severance packages.

That includes 342 employees who volunteered for severance and another 294 workers, including 237 Alaska residents, who were receiving involuntary severance.

David Conway, human resources director for BP Alaska, told Kim Kovig, Rapid Response Statewide Coordinator for the state labor department, that 806 BP workers had received offers from Hilcorp, of which 749 had accepted the offers. Another 153 employees would continue with BP at other US and global locations, while another 29 had resigned, he said.

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At this time, BP expects that 345 employees working in Prudhoe Bay will be losing employment next year, wrote Conway. The first group of employees are to be separated around Feb. 20 and the second group on the day that the sale closes and ownership of BP’s Alaska business transfers to Hilcorp, which is expected to be after April 30, Conway said. The third group will support the transition to Hilcorp and be terminated within six months of the close of the sale, he said.

The affected workers are employed at several BP entities, including BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., BP Corporation North America, BP Pipelines North America Inc. and BP America Production Co.

Conway said that 243 of the workers being terminated were not represented by a labor organization and 102 were represented by the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Services Workers International, Local 4959.

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