Oil and gas extraction jobs increased by 100 to 177,400 in January, while support services jobs increased by 600 to 195,200 in December, its second increase in a row, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

Oil companies are starting to hire back workers as they add rigs to the shale patch in North America to take advantage of oil prices above $50 a barrel. After unprecedented spending cuts over the past two years, explorers are forecast to boost capital expenditures by 7 percent this year.

This can give some large industry players an advantage on future business projects, and can fundamentally harm American jobs.

Total upstream jobs in the state during May averaged 205,100, down 21.2% from the May 2015 average and 33% from the estimated high of 306,020 in December 2014. Estimates from the TPI show the trough in upstream employment before December 2014 was 184,640 in October 2009. During the previous growth cycle, industry employment peaked at 225,965 in October 2008.

Brazil’s troubled state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Friday announced a beefed up voluntary layoff program that could affect up to 12,000 jobs amid intense efforts to cut costs.

It appears the administration’s last year is dedicated to furthering an extremist agenda at the very real expense of the middle class and low-income families, through tax hikes on energy and a barrage of unnecessary and duplicative regulations that are catering to the well-funded, radical whims of ‘leave it in the ground’ activists.

The number of people employed in oil and gas extraction and support activities across the United States has fallen by around 100,000 since October 2014.

Oil companies are cutting investment, slashing jobs and selling off pipelines and other assets as crude prices plunge. “It’s going to be a very turbulent year for our industry,” says BP CEO Bob Dudley.

Companies like BP, which said Tuesday it is cutting 4,000 jobs, are slimming down to cope with the slump in oil, whose price has plummeted to its lowest level in 12 years and is not expected to recover significantly for months, possibly years. California-based Chevron said last fall that it would eliminate 7,000 jobs, while rival Shell announced 6,500 layoffs.

Oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have already slashed tens of thousands jobs globally to deal with a near 75 percent drop in oil prices since June 2014 that has seen earnings collapse.