The latest Oklahoma Employment Security Commission’s (OESC) monthly employment report, released last week, contains the preliminary statistics for October 2024. This report shows that in October Seminole County had the fourth highest rate of unemployment in the state. This was the second month in a row Seminole has held this position. This was an improvement to being the third highest in August.

In the report for October, Haskell County once again posted Oklahoma’s highest county unemployment rate of 5.61 percent (down from 5.6 in September). McIntosh County had second-highest rate for the month. Dewey County once again reported the lowest county unemployment rate of 1.6 percent (down from 1.8 percent in September).

The latest report states that, across the state, unemployment rates in October were higher than a year earlier in 3 counties and lower in 74 counties.

SEMINOLE COUNTY labor force rosed dropped from 9,678 In September tp 9,585 in October, according to the OESC report. The number of employed dropped from 9,201 in September to 9,163 in October. The number of unemployed dropped from 577 to 422.

The result of these positive changes was that unemployment dropped from 4.9 percent in last month’s report to 4.4 percent in this month’s report. This month’s rate is also lower than the 5.4 percent unemployment that was reported for October 2023.

Despite the improvement, Seminole County’s unemployed ranking among the 77 counties in Oklahoma remained at 74. The lower this number is, the better. The county with the highest rate of unemployment is 77, the county with the lowest unemployment is 1.

Neighboring HUGHES COUNTY reported unemployment dropped from 4.4 percent last month to 3.9 percent in the latest report. Last year their unemployment rate was 4.6 percent. This positive change raised them from the 71st position to the 70th in the state. POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY unemployment dropped from 3.5 percent to 3.1 percent. This moved them from the 42nd to the 40th spot. Their unemployment rate was 4.0 percent last year.

OKFUSKEE COUNTY’S ranking rose from the 57th to the 61st position even though their unemployment rate dropped from 3.8 to 3.5. Okfuskee County reported a 4.3 percent unemployment rate last year.

PONTOTOC COUNTY, which usually has one of the lower rankings in the surrounding area, reported a drop from 2.7 percent last month to 2.5 percent in the preliminary report for October. Their unemployment rate was 3.4 percent last year.

Although this was an improvement, Pontotoc County’s state rank stayed at 16th.

It should be noted that the statistics in this report are an attempt to provide a snapshot of information and statistics that are constantly changing. The OESC report explains that each month, current employment statistics and local area unemployment statistics data is preliminary and data for the previous month is revised in their reports. For example, last month the preliminary data for September reported a Seminole County labor force of 9,742, which was updated to 9,678 this month. When this happens, this report will use the revised figure. If the change is significant, the revision will be commented on in the story.