The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) released its monthly update on unemployment on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

The report stated that in July, Latimer County posted Oklahoma’s highest county unemployment rate of 6.3 percent. McIntosh and Pittsburg Counties shared the second-highest rate for the month, followed by Haskell County. Beaver County reported the lowest county unemployment rate of 1.2 percent in July. Unemployment rates in July were lower than a year earlier in all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.

According to the OESC report, Seminole County has a labor force of 8,847, with 8,488 employed and 359, or 4.1 percent, unemployed. This was an improvement from June, when the unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. In July of last year, the unemployment rate for Seminole County was 8.8 percent. Seminole rated 71st out of the 77 counties the state, which means only six other counties had a higher rate of unemployment.

Neighboring Hughes County rated 73rd, with and unemployment rate of 4.3 percent. This was an improvement from the 5.9 percent in June and 9.2 in July 2020.

Pottawatomie County was rated 37th with an unemployment rate of 3.0 percent. This is a drop from 3.6 percent in June and 7.3 percent in July 2020.

Okfuskee County was rated 64th, with an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. This was less than the 4.5 percent unemployment reported in June and 7.5 percent in July 2020.

Pontotoc County, which usually has one of the lowest rates in the surrounding area, was rated 27th in the state with an unemployment rate of 2.7 percent. This was down from 3.3 percent in June and 5.9 percent in July 2020.

In a separate press release on Thursday, Sept. 2, the OESC reported a continuing decline in both initial and continued claims, with both four-week moving averages also declining.

“I’m thrilled to continue to see unemployment claims decline in Oklahoma, nearing pre-pandemic levels statewide,” said Shelley Zumwalt, OESC Executive Director. “Last week, the agency paid out just $5.5 million in state benefits from the UI Trust Fund, which is the lowest weekly pay out of UI benefits since February 2020. This is great news for our state’s employers and the state workforce as the state’s economy continues to trend in the right direction and people are getting back to work.”

The Sept. 2 report states that for the file week ending Aug. 21, the number of initial claims totaled 3,146, a decrease of 840 from the previous week’s level of 3,986. For the same file week, the less volatile initial claims four-week moving average was 3,626, a decrease of 144 from the previous week’s average of 3,770.

The number of continued claims totaled 27,549, a decrease of 1,796 from the previous week’s level of 29,345. Continued claims’ four-week moving average was 29,173, a decrease of 1,201 from the previous week’s average of 30,374.

This good news was tempered by the weekly report released on Friday, Aug. 27, which showed a small increase in initial claims for the file week ending Aug. 14. That report showed the number of initial claims totaled 3,986, an increase of 148 from the previous week’s level of 3,838, although the four-weeks moving average on initial claims and continued claims still shows a decline.

“For the past five consecutive weeks, we have seen decreases in both the initial and continued claims fourweek moving averages, and those averages continue to be a good indication of the state’s progress,” said Zumwalt. “While the initial claims numbers have tended to fluctuate, Oklahoma’s numbers are mirroring the trends we are seeing nationwide.”

As a hint of what to expect in next month’s OESC report for August, a Sept. 3 press release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the national unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.2 percent. The number of unemployed persons edged down to 8.4 million, following a large decrease in July. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession. However, they remain above their levels prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (3.5 percent and 5.7 million, respectively, in February 2020). Experts believe the initial wave of reopening hiring waned in August as concerns over the Delta variant increased.