EL RENO, Okla. (KFOR) – Over 800 people are now without a job after Halliburton announced it is closing its El Reno operation, according to the city’s mayor.
“Christmas is not a good time to get laid off,” Dennis Morkes, who lives in El Reno, said.
It may not be a good time, but it’s now a reality for 808 employees at the Halliburton operation in El Reno.
“I actually do have a friend from my home town that did work there,” Jacob Shelburne, who lives near El Reno, said. “I know he’s got two or three kids he’s got to take care of. So yeah, that’s pretty horrible.”
The mayor of El Reno, Matt White, said he got word about the layoffs Monday morning.
“The way we read the letter was basically they’re shutting down operations. 808, I think, employees will be without jobs. They’re gonna shut that down immediately,” White said.
It’s something White said you can never be prepared for. However, he said the possibility was on the city’s radar.
“We held back on our budget to flatline what we did the year before, because of we saw the decline in the oilfield and everything else. So we wanted to try to not be completely dependent on the oil business,” White said.
But he said they do expect the local economy to take a hit from the massive layoff.
“They do a lot of shopping in our shops, a lot of eating in our restaurants. It’s going to be traumatic for our sales tax,” White said.
For the people who once reported to the El Reno Halliburton every day, White and community members are feeling their pain.
“Christmas is a pretty tough time to do it, but I don’t know that there’s any good time to lose your job,” White said.
“Feel sorry for them, hope they rebound,” Morkes said.
News 4 contacted Halliburton for comment and we were told they would not be releasing any information about the matter until Tuesday afternoon.
