Exxonmobil to cut jobs in Singapore as Big Oil retrenches
Exxonmobil Corp. expects to cut about 300 jobs in the Asian oil-trading hub of Singapore by the end of 2021, part of a global retrenchment that was announced last year.
The planned lay-offs equate to about 7% of its 4,000-strong workforce in the city-state, the company said in a statement. It follow similar announcements in recent months from fellow oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron Corp., which are also cutting positions in Singapore, Bloomberg reported.
Exxon said in October that it would slash its global workforce by 15%, or about 14,000 people, by the end of 2022. The oil industry was hit hard by the collapse in prices last year due to the coronavirus, while it also faces longer-term challenges as fossil fuels are gradually replaced by cleaner alternatives. Southeast Asian refiners, meanwhile, may also come under pressure from massive plants being opened in China.
Shell said in November that it would cut oil-processing capacity at the Pulau Bukom complex in Singapore by half, resulting in hundreds of job losses over the next three years. Chevron may cut 10% of its workforce in the city-state, the Business Times reported in November, citing an unidentified spokesman.
Big Oil is shedding thousands of jobs globally. BP plans to slash 10,000 positions, Shell will cut as many as 9,000 roles, and Chevron has announced about 6,000 reductions.
The job losses in Singapore are due to a reorganization that was accelerated by the pandemic, and the changes will enhance long-term competitiveness,
Exxon said in the statement. A spokes- person in Singapore confirmed the plan followed from last year’s announcement of global workforce reductions.
The Thai government appears sympathetic to a plea by tourism operators to reopen its borders to international travelers by July 1, although it first needs to see evidence that vaccines are effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Since Thailand’s booming tourism sector came to a screeching halt in March last year, thousands of businesses have closed and the economy has tanked. Now is the time to plan the revival, argued Willem Nemeijer, chief executive of Bangkok-based YAANA Ventures, afr.com reported.
This week YAANA, together with other tourism operators, launched an online campaign arguing for the lifting of restrictions on international arrivals by mid-year. The companies say the majority of citizens in many source countries will be vaccinated by then, and Thailand’s own vaccination program will be well underway.
Reopening on July 1 would allow Thailand to lead the rest of Asia and pave the way for a “solid recovery of the Thai economy in 2022″, Nemeijer said in a statement.
The Thai government appears to be cautiously
enthusiastic about the idea. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said he had launched a review of how vaccination certificates might be used. These would allow Thais to travel outside the country and provide international tourists with quarantinefree
entry to Thailand.
Prayuth said, however, that Thailand would proceed with caution and wait to see how effective vaccines are in preventing the spread of COVID-19 before relaxing restrictions.
“I have already ordered the study so we can be prepared, but it’s also important that we proceed in line with other countries,” Prayuth said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.
With the industry accounting for about 13 percent of national GDP PRE-COVID-19, the government is under pressure to get tourism moving again.
The economy contracted 6.1 percent last year, the steepest drop in output since 1997. The government is hoping for a modest recovery of between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent this year.
Vaccinations this week kicked off in the holiday island of Phuket, recognized as an “economically significant” province by the national government. Tourism workers on the island get priority, along with health care workers and the elderly.
Before the pandemic struck, Thailand welcomed 39.9 million international tourists in 2019, up from 14.1 million a decade earlier and just 8.6 million in 1999. World Bank data shows the biggest sources countries were China, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
As if attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) isn’t already tough on a child, new research suggests the condition might also raise the odds for a psychotic disorder later in life. But parents should not panic. “I would say that this finding should not be an alarm for parents and people who have ADHD, because the absolute risk for psychotic disorders remains low,” said psychiatry professor Dr. Gabrielle Shapiro. She is chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Children, Adolescents and Their Families, healthday.com reported.
That point was echoed by Dr. Victor Fornari, vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry with Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. “What’s clear is that the vast majority of youth with ADHD do not go on to develop psychosis,” he said.
The new analysis looked at 12 prior studies that included a total of more than 1.8 million participants, of whom just over 124,000 had been diagnosed with ADHD before the age of 18. Roughly 1% to 12.5% of those patients went on to develop a psychotic disorder.
But no more than 4% of those without ADHD met the same fate, with some of the studies citing essentially zero risk. Collectively that translated into a five-times higher psychotic disorder risk among those with a history of ADHD, regardless of gender.
So how much concern should this raise? Both Shapiro and Fornari, who were not involved in the review, suggested that the findings need to be kept in context. They said the far more pressing issue is making sure that children with ADHD get the care they need in the first place.
“Parents should know that they should seek early treatment for their child with ADHD,” Fornari said, “because children who are treated do much better than children who are not treated. And getting them in treatment is the best way to prevent the development of more serious problems.”
And, Shapiro added, that means “making sure that we do everything we can to destigmatize mental illness so that parents don’t hesitate to seek out care for their children with ADHD.”
The new review, led by Dr. Mikaïl Nourredine, of the Service Hospital and
University of Pharmacotoxicology of Lyon, France, was published online recently in JAMA Psychiatry.
When looking at a potential connection between ADHD and psychotic disorder risk, Nourredine and colleagues included a wide array of diagnoses, including schizophrenia and delusional disorder. Mood disorders that can give rise to psychotic symptoms — such as depression or bipolar disorder — were not included.
In the end, both Shapiro and Fornari noted that what the research team found was an association between ADHD and elevated risk for future mental illness, rather than definitive proof of a direct cause and effect.
Still, the French investigators offered a number of theories that could explain the link. For example, they suggested that both ADHD and psychotic disorders may source back to similar genetic predispositions. It could also be that they share the same environmental triggers, or that they unfold along similar developmental pathways.
According to Shapiro, “The message of this study is that, as scientists, we must continue to look for correlations to prevent long-term mental illness among our ADHD patients, because the propensity for a child with ADHD to have some sort of other psychiatric diagnosis in the future is definitely real. We know, for example, that kids with ADHD who go untreated have higher instances of depression, anxiety and substance use.”
Fornari said that means that “children being treated for ADHD should certainly be monitored for other mental health symptoms. That kind of tracking should already be part of the treatment plan.”
The best treatment plans, Shapiro said, “look at the entire holistic person. Because that’s the way to try and prevent co-morbid diagnoses down the road. And the good news is that I do see that kids with ADHD who are treated properly do have a lower incidence for additional disorders in the future.”
Uber is spinning off the sidewalk robotics division of the Postmates delivery service acquired last year, creating a new company called Serve Robotics.
A statement from Serve Robotics said it had an unspecified amount of seed funding from venture capital firm Neo with participation by Uber and other investors, AFP reported.
Serve Robotics “will continue spearheading the development of a new form of mobility by creating autonomous robots to deliver goods in urban environments,” a statement from the new company said on Tuesday.
“Its fleet has already proven its viability by serving thousands of households in Los Angeles and has been especially useful during the pandemic by providing customers with contactless delivery.”
The move comes with Uber narrowing its focus on ride-hailing and meal delivery, while spinning off or selling non-core operations such as its e-bike division.
Serve meanwhile enters a crowded market for robotic delivery which has gained traction in recent years.
“While self-driving cars remove the driver, robotic delivery eliminates the car itself and makes deliveries sustainable and accessible to all,” said Ali Kashani, cofounder and chief executive of Serve Robotics.
“Over the next two decades, new mobility robots will enter every aspect of our lives – first moving food, then everything else.”
According to Serve, nearly half of all restaurant deliveries in the US are within a 40-minute walk, offering opportunities for robotic delivery.
Uber last year announced plans to buy Postmates for $2.65 billion in stock, in a move shaking up the sector which has seen surging growth during the coronavirus pandemic.