The layoffs of another 172 workers by SandRidge Energy this week no doubt will affect the state’s jobless rate. But the latest report from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission indicated the unemployment rates went up in December in only two of the state’s 77 counties.
Rates rose in Greer and Kiowa Counties from November 2015 to December 2015, according to the announcement from the Commission. Greer County’s jobless rate rose a tenth of a percent to reach 6.2 percent for December. The county’s labor force is more than 2,200 and nearly 2,100 are employed. Kiowa County’s rate rose two tenths of a point to reach 4.8 percent, ranking it the 50th highest unemployment rate in the state. The county has a labor force of 4,215 and 204 are out of work.
The state’s oil and gas sector continues losing workers. Many are reflected in the Employment Security Commission’s Mining and Logging Sector where 18,000 were employed as of Dec. 2015. But the sector also showed a loss of 3,100 workers from Dec. 2014 to Dec. 2015 or a drop of 14.5 percent.
Of course, the figures do not reflect any layoffs that started in January 2015 including the more than 225 let go by Lariat Services, a subsidiary of SandRidge Energy. Most of those workers were employed at Lariat’s offices in Cherokee and Alva. Cherokee is located in Alfalfa County where as of December 2015, the jobless rate was 2.6 percent down from 3.1 percent in November 2015. Only 80 people were out of work in the county as of Christmas 2015.
Alva is the county seat of Woods County, another site of aggressive oil and gas drilling in the Mississippi Lime. Its December 2015 jobless rate was 2.5 percent, down a tenth of a point from November 2015. Only 136 workers were listed as jobless in December 2015. Woods county ranked the second lowest in the state, tied with Beaver and Harper Counties. The lowest jobless rate was 1.8 percent in Cimarron County.
