The growing number of layoffs in the state’s oil and gas sector has caused an increase in Oklahoma’s jobless rate, according to new figures released by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. But one area of employment that continues to grow is government.
Unemployment rates rose in 68 of the state’s 77 counties in February with the usual results—high unemployment in the southeastern counties and low jobless rates in the northwest and the Panhandle. Four counties saw drops in unemployment rates. They were Blaine, Bryan, Cherokee and Delaware counties. Cimarron County had the lowest rate of 2.4 percent while McIntosh County was highest at 8.7 percent.
Once again, increasing layoffs in the energy industry were reflected in the Mining and Logging sector as detailed by the Employment Security Commission. In Tulsa, the sector recorded a loss of 1,000 jobs from February 2015 to February 2016 or a decline of 13.2 percent. From January to February alone, the loss was 100 jobs or a drop of 1.5 percent. The city’s employment of energy jobs went from 7,600 in February of last year to 6,600 in February of this year.
Oklahoma City’s energy sector dropped by nearly 20 percent over the past year, losing 4,200 jobs from February to February. The loss totaled 800 jobs or 4.5 percent from January to February of this year. The city’s total energy employment went from 21,100 in February 2015 to 16,900 in February 2016.
Lawton saw a 5.6 drop or 100 energy jobs from February to February. While its energy employment isn’t great compared to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, it is considered to be one of the major metro areas of the state.
One sector that saw increases in employment in all three metro areas was government whether it was federal, state or local. Tulsa saw a 1.2 percent increase in all government employment from February to February and a 3.2 percent increase in state government during the same time period. It added 700 government jobs in the 12-month period.
Oklahoma City saw a growth of 1,900 government jobs in the same period which is a 1.5 percent increase from February to February. The number of federal government workers grew by 600 or 2.2 percent while the number of state government workers was up by 900 or 2 percent. The increase in local governments, cities and counties, totaled 400 or 0.7 percent. Overall, there are 129,900 different government workers in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
Lawton saw an increase of less than one percent from February to February. It went from 15,300 last February to 15,400 in February 2016. The number of federal workers remained even at 4,100 while the number of local government employees grew by 1 percent, going from 9,600 to 9,700.
