Oklahoma’s latest jobless figures show the oil and gas industry is still bleeding badly in the world downturn, dropping 400 more jobs from April to May.
Lynn Gray, Director of Economic Research and Analysis for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission says the state’s energy sector has lost 19,200 jobs since its employment peaked in November of 2014. That’s a loss of 30% over the past 19 months.
He doubts that even $50 a barrel oil will do little to help the industry in the immediate future.
Reflected in the State’s Mining and Logging Sector, the oil and gas industry had 44,500 in May of 2016, down 400 or 0.9% from April. In May of 2015, there were still 54,900 employed in Oil and Gas but the loss in the past year has totaled 10,400 or 18.9 percent from May 2015 to May 2016.
Manufacturing was hit equally hard, losing 16,400 since December 2014 or 11.5 percent. As of May, there were 126,200 employed in manufacturing a top of 2,000 jobs from April or 1.6% decline. But in May 2015, the state had 138,200 employed in manufacturing and the decline over the past year has totaled 12,000 or 8.7 percent.
The state’s May overall unemployment rose 0.2’%, reaching 4.7 percent for the month.
Listen to Gray’s comments in interview with OK Energy Today’s Jerry Bohnen.