The latest jobless report from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission showed slight increases in almost all of Oklahoma’s counties for the month of January with McIntosh County having the highest rate at 8.7 percent and Cimarron County with the lowest at 2.3 percent.
The figures also indicated the Oklahoma City metropolitan area suffered a loss of 4,400 oil and gas workers from January 2015 to January 2016, or a decline of 19.9 percent. Oil and gas workers are classified under the Mining and Logging sector of the State’s employment statistics and since many of the oil and gas industry layoffs occurred at the headquarters of some of the energy firms, they are reflected in the Oklahoma City figures. Oklahoma City’s oil and gas employment in January 2015 stood at 22,100 but in January 2016, the count was 17,700. The city lost 300 workers from December 2015 to January 2016. Oklahoma county has an overall jobless rate of 3.7 percent, down from the 4.1 percent in January of 2015. The county has 14,099 unemployed out of a total work force of 380,506. That leaves 366,407 employed workers.
Tulsa suffered a loss of 11.8 percent from January 2015 to January of this year when 900 workers lost their jobs in the oil and gas sector. The loss included 100 workers from December 2015 to January of this year or another 1.5 percent. Tulsa’s overall employment in oil and gas was 7,600 in January of 2015 but this year, it landed at 6,700.
Despite the losses in the oil patch, some of the state’s counties with heavy oil and gas exploration remain some of those with the lowest jobless rates in the state. Cimarron County ranks lowest but it’s in the Panhandle where there is relatively little oil and gas exploration. However Woods County is number three with a 2.7 percent unemployment rate. Alfalfa and Grant counties are tied for 5th with jobless rates of 2.9 percent. Major County with a rate of 3.1 percent is ranked 8th lowest in the state.
