Laid off from NOV.

What NOV layoffs have meant for employees

NOV's annual reports show how far the company shrank more plainly than its layoff notices do. Its net worldwide headcount fell by more than 40% from the end of 2014 to the end of 2016, its 2014 10-K and 2016 10-K show, and the temporary workforce went from thousands to a few hundred, about 14% of the 2014 total but nearly a third of the reduction. The jobs listed in NOV's 2015 and 2016 filings in our WARN tracker equal about 4% of that net drop, though the two figures measure different things. One counts US notices, and the other is a worldwide total that also moves with hiring and retirements; NOV's 2025 annual report puts 34% of its employees in the United States. If you're trying to place your own layoff in that stretch, the filings alone can't reconstruct the whole reduction.

Early retirement has come with NOV's cuts more than once, and the company books the two side by side. In 2019 a voluntary early retirement program and other severance and facility-closure costs came to $131 million across its three segments, its 2020 10-K shows. The 2015 plan was established in the first quarter, and that year's four filings in our tracker are dated July through November, though they're separate records. If an offer like that reaches you, it's worth putting its terms beside what any severance plan or agreement covering you would pay, and noting when the offer closes.

Union contracts covered about 741 of NOV's US employees at the end of 2014 and about 380 at the end of 2016, by its annual reports, against a worldwide workforce in the tens of thousands. In Dayton, NOV's letter to Ohio said its union-represented workers had bumping rights and its nonunion workers didn't. If a union contract covers you at a closing NOV site, its terms on bumping are worth a close read.

NOV's latest cost-cutting runs through its buildings. In February 2026, management said the company's consolidation work continues with an ongoing $100 million cost-out program, multiple facility consolidations and exits from underperforming product lines and markets, according to the call transcript, and the transcript's summary puts the savings target at the end of 2026, primarily through facility consolidations and process enhancements. The footprint is already smaller, with 503 physical locations in the 2025 annual report against 551 in its 2024 annual report, 48 fewer, among them plants, machine shops, offices and warehouses where 20 to 1,100 people work. If your site is being folded into another, the consolidation alone won't tell you whether your job moves with the work, so a transfer offer, if one comes, is worth reading for the pay, the shift and any relocation help.

Finding a notice for your own site can take more than one name. Older NOV filings in our tracker go by its former names, Grant Prideco's two by that company's, and the newest by NOV Energy Products Services, so it's worth trying each before deciding your site didn't file. Grant Prideco's filings count as NOV's because NOV has owned that business since 2008, though both predate the purchase, while rows from units NOV has since sold stay out. Brand names are the other snag. Workers who knew the Dayton plant as Chemineer, the name WHIO reported NOV's website gave it, would find the company's letter under National Oilwell Varco, and the Pampa notice KFDA reported came from Keystone Tower Systems, a name without NOV in it. If your badge or paycheck carried a brand rather than NOV's name, it's worth searching state notice lists under both.

A sourced history of NOV layoffs

• 2026, Keystone Tower Systems plans Pampa plant closing

  Keystone Tower Systems told the Texas Workforce Commission, in a notice KFDA reported, that its Pampa plant would close January 4, 2027, affecting all 79 employees, with the first layoffs scheduled to start November 2. No union represented them, officials said.

• December 2025, Iuka, Mississippi pipe plant closing notice

  NOV Energy Products Services gave notice of a closing in Iuka, in Tishomingo County, affecting 12 workers, and Mississippi’s WARN list gives April 1, 2026 as the date of action under plastics pipe manufacturing.

• May 2025, Dayton Fluid Motion Solutions plant closing notice

  NOV planned to close its Fluid Motion Solutions plant in Dayton, affecting about 127 employees, with the earliest separation expected May 12 and the closing to be finalized by December 31, its May 7 letter to Ohio said. The 88 union-represented workers had bumping rights; the 39 others didn't.

• November 2020, Orange, California closing filing

  A closing filing for NOV's site in Orange, California, dated November 17, 2020, lists 283 jobs, the largest of NOV's filings in our WARN tracker.

What to do if you're laid off from NOV

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. NOV's biggest hubs: Texas, California, Mississippi, Ohio. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what NOV's hub states run: Texas, California, Mississippi, Ohio, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.