Those recent county breakdowns of state jobless figures in Oklahoma also reflected a continuing loss of workers in the oil patch.
The number of people employed in Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry in May totaled 15,300, a drop of 200 from April 2016. It was also 3,700 less than May of 2015, according to figures released by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
The change from April to May was a 1.3 percent loss while the drop from May 2015 to May 2016 was 19.5 percent.
But one sector of employment in the state that just keeps growing is government. The overall government sector totaled 131,400 employees in May, an increase of 900 from April or 0.7%. From May 2015 to May 2016, the government sector added 2,000 workers in the state or an increase of 1.6%.
The federal government sector totaled 27,900 workers, an increase of 100 from April and another 600 from May of 2015. That figured out to be 2.2% more from year to year.
While some reports recently indicated the state government had a drop of more than 600 employees in recent months, the Employment Security Commission figures showed an increase of 1.9% or 900 employees from May 2015 to May 2016. State employment went from 46,900 in May of last year to 47,800 in May of this year.