Oklahoma jobless rates inched upward in November

Jobless rates in Oklahoma moved up slightly in November, a reflection of what’s happened in the oil and gas industry. Unemployment rates increased in 75 counties, dropped in one county and were unchanged in one county, according to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Of the three major metropolitan sites, Oklahoma City has seen the largest impact in oil and gas.  The Commission’s Mining and Logging sector, which includes oil and gas activity saw Oklahoma City’s employment drop from 21,500 in October 2019 to 20,800 in November. The decline of 700 workers was 3.3%.

But Oklahoma City”s oil and gas employment in November 2018 was 22,200 saw the decline of 1,400 by November 2019 was 6.3%.

Tulsa’s oil and gas employment remained unchanged from October 2019 to November 2019 at 7,300. The November employment was 200 more than November 2018 or an increase of 2.8%.

Jobless rates in the three metro areas included 3.2% in Oklahoma County, 3.4% for Tulsa County and 3.7% in Comanche County which covers Lawton.

Jobless rates in southeastern Oklahoma didn’t improve much and 12 of the 13 counties with jobless rates of 5% or more were located in that region of the state.

Latimer County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 7.7% while the lowest rate of 1.8% was in Cimarron County in the Panhandle.