America's oil-field workers already took a hit last year. This year, they're taking another one, and worse.

U.S.-based energy companies announced plans to send 103,000 workers packing in the first 10 months of 2016, compared with 90,000 in the same period last year, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.



Signs have emerged in the last few months that the worst may be over. Employment in the American oil and gas extraction sector appears to be bottoming out, and U.S. energy layoffs fell 75 percent last month from a year ago. But the industry has been shaken by the depth and length of the downturn in oil prices, and the job cuts that have followed this year.