PetroLMI's numbers are terrific, and are boosted by the second downward revision in forecast drilling activity this year from the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, which alone accounts for 25,000 jobs under threat this year in Canada.

CAODC said continued pressure on capital markets and commodity prices was leading to a sustained effort by contractors to manage lower demand and subsequent employment losses.

Since its last revision in January 2015, the number of operating days is expected to decline by an additional 10,320 days or 13%.

A sharp drop in the number of overall operating days means an estimated reduction of 25,110 total jobs in 2015, down almost 50% from the 2014 total of 49,950.

CAODC president Mark Scholz said potential policy changes in Alberta with respect to royalties, other factors such as low LNG activity in British Columbia and overall depressed commodity prices, meant CAODC's members were continuing to streamline operations to remain agile.

PetroLMI's research, which looked at the Canadian oil patch over 2014, shows the oil and gas industry spent nearly $125 billion on exploration, development and production - supporting more than 720,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada.

About two-thirds of these jobs were concentrated in Alberta, primarily in the oil sands business.

British Columbia could carry 20,000 job losses with 14,000 job losses estimated in Ontario.

With an anticipated $31 billion reduction in capital expenditure, the biggest impact would be in oil and gas engineering construction firms with 75,000 jobs lost, followed by the support services sector, which is heavily involved in exploration and development drilling at 26,000 jobs lost.

It will be the second mass employment extinction since the global financial crises in 2009: larger in magnitude but comparable in scale, PetroLMI said.

The study noted a still uncertain outlook for the oil and gas industry in 2016 and beyond, and that there were no indications the industry would bounce back as quickly in 2016 as it did in 2010 following the recession.

Even with Canadian oil production expected to grow modestly in 2015, largely due to sunk costs in oil sands developments, expenditures related to operations are also projected to decline by almost $3.3 billion, down 6.7% from 2014.

After adjusting for inflation, the estimated decline in capital and operational expenditures is almost $10 billion, or 34%, more than in 2009.

If the anticipated reduction in expenditures is realised, the implications for employment in 2015 could be even more significant.

"The outlook for 2016 and beyond is unclear," PetroLMI director Carol Howes said.

"What is clear is that the behaviour of oil and gas companies will be an important factor in determining the actual number of job losses in 2015.

"Managing labour costs in a time of declining oil prices through creative workforce retention strategies will become more critical in the months ahead."