Figures recently released by the state government in Oklahoma show a slight dip in employment in the state’s energy sector.
The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported oil and gas employment in Oklahoma City, the city with the largest employment in the sector, dropped more than 1 percent in January 2018.
The 1.4% decline occurred from December 2017 to January when 700 energy jobs were lost. Classified under the Commission’s Mining, Logging and Construction sector, the employment went from 49,800 in December 2017 to 49,100 in January.
Despite the loss of 700 jobs, the employment was still better than the 45,200 reported in January of 2017. The increase from January to January came to 8.6%.
The second largest metropolitan area energy employment is in Tulsa where the December to January loss was 800 jobs or a decline of 2.6%. The state found there were 30,600 employed in the energy sector in December 2017 but by January 2018, the number had slipped to 29,800. Still, the January 2018 energy employment in Tulsa was 1,900 more than the 27,900 working in January 2017. That’s an increase of 6.8%.
Lawton’s energy employment dropped 100 from December 2017 to January 2018. It was a 5.6% decline as energy employment went from 1,800 in December to 1,700 in January. However, the January 2018 employment was still 6.35 or 100 better than the 1,700 working in January 2017.