About 32% of UK’s oil and gas companies, more than four in 10, are planning to cut more jobs in 2016 in response to the downturn in the industry, Bank of Scotland (BoS) said in ‘Re-evaluating Strategies’, its fifth annual report on the sector. However, the job cuts will not be as severe as it were in 2015, the report revealed, according to International Business Times.

The report which surveyed 141 oil and gas companies across Scotland, England and Wales, ranging from producers to suppliers of all sizes, revealed that about 51% of these businesses had cut jobs in 2015.

“Executives’ responses indicate the total cuts across the North Sea and the onshore supply chain may still number in the thousands. A sixth of the others facing cuts are in London, and their forecasts are heavier at more than 100 posts per company on average”, the report said.

In Scotland, 57% of companies surveyed within the industry and its supply chain said they had been severely or quite badly affected by the slump in oil prices, and 41% of firms across the UK. For every one job created last year, they said that six had been lost, BBC added.