Halliburton Co. is sending out another round of layoff notices within the next two weeks, with most of the jobs lost, including management positions, to affect North America.

The No. 2 oilfield services operator in North America — and the largest pressure pumper — already has laid off thousands of employees since the start of the year, with most of the positions lost in the United States.

“Halliburton is making adjustments to its workforce in North America based on current business conditions and has communicated with our employees,” spokeswoman Susie McMichael told NGI’s Shale Daily. “Halliburton will continue to monitor the business environment and will adjust the size of our workforce to align with current business demands as needed. We are committed to ensuring that our separated employees are treated with dignity and respect.”

The latest cuts weren’t enumerated. However, the Houston operator has announced several layoffs since the start of the year. At the end of 2014 Halliburton had close to 80,000 people employed worldwide. In April the company said it had cut about 9,000 jobs, or about 10% of the global headcount, since the start of the year (see Shale Daily, April 20; Feb. 11).

In July Halliburton and Baker Hughes Inc., which are merging, separately disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they had increased the number of people they were laying off. Halliburton said then that it had reduced its workforce by 16% at the end of June, bringing its total job losses to about 12,800.

The latest round of layoffs are unrelated to the merger. President Jeff Miller disclosed the layoffs in an internal memo to employees.

“As I know you are certainly aware, these continue to be tough times for our industry,” Miller said. “Our prices are under pressure, rig counts continue to decline and customer spending has been significantly curtailed both for the remainder of 2015 and 2016. As a result, we must continue to manage through this extended industry down cycle by implementing additional cost reduction measures to protect the interests of all stakeholders.

“Unfortunately, this means that additional staff reductions are under way, with the majority of the reductions in North America — the region hardest hit by market conditions.”

Halliburton first plans to “flatten” the North America business, Miller said, “by eliminating multiple layers of management. Secondly, we will reduce additional headcount commensurate with market activity levels.” Notifications are to take place in the next two weeks, the memo said.

“While it doesn’t make it any easier, the company is not alone in taking these actions as similar actions are being taken throughout the entire oil and gas industry — service providers and operators alike,” Miller said.

Pipeline developer TransCanada Corp. also is laying off employees. In June nearly 200 people based in Calgary were given their walking papers.

TransCanada, which employs about 6,000 in North America, now plans to layoff about 20% of staff in “senior leadership positions,” a spokesman said. In addition, the company is analyzing its overall operations, with more job cuts expected by the end of November.

Caterpillar Inc.,which, among other things, builds infrastructure and manufactures equipment for the mining and energy industries, said Thursday it would lay off up to 10,000 people. Nearly half of the job losses would be before the end of 2016. CEO Doug Oberhelman blamed “challenging market conditions” in the mining and energy sectors.

The Peoria, IL-based company has reduced its 2015 sales projections by $1 billion to $48 billion. This is the company’s “third consecutive down year for sale sand revenues and 2016 would mark the first time in Caterpillar’s 90-year history that sales and revenues have decreased four years in a row.”