Oklahoma was one of 40 states in the U.S. last week where the unemployment rate was below 4 percent. Oklahoma’s unemployment rate actually improved to 3.2 percent for December 2018 for the 8th consecutive month, according to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
The December rate improved 0.1 percentage point and was down nearly a full point compared to December 2017 when the rate was 4.1 percent. The 3.2 percent represents the 59,073 out of the state’s labor force of 1,849,452 who are out of work.
At the same time, Oklahoma’s seasonally adjusted employment dropped by 6,078 or 0.3 percent while unemployment fell by 1,039 or 2.2 percent.
Oklahoma’s Mining and Loggin sector which includes those in the oil and gas industry increased 1,500 jobs from November 2018 to December 2018, going from 55,100 to 56,600. The sector’s employment also grew 6,800 jobs from December 2017 to December 2018 or 13.7 percent. The increase of 6,800 was the largest job gain over the year for the various sectors of employment.
The state’s transportation sector saw a decline of 700 jobs from November 2018 when there were 68,900 jobs to 68,200 jobs in December 2018 or a full one percent. However, the December 2018 employment was still 200 higher than December 2017.