OKLAHOMA CITY – Mixed signals from the state, regional, and national levels are creating an opaque economic picture.
As an illustration, Oklahoma’s unemployment rate is 3.1%, ninth lowest in the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among surrounding states, current jobless rates are 3.8% in Kansas and Arkansas, 4.1% in Texas, Missouri and New Mexico.
The lowest unemployment rate nationally is 1.9% in South Dakota, while the two highest rates are 6.0% in Washington, D.C., and 5.5% in California.
Initial claims filed in Oklahoma for jobless benefits during the week that ended Nov. 15 totaled 1,258, which was 302 fewer than the 1,560 first-time claims filed the week before, U.S. Department of Labor records reflect. Continuing Oklahoma unemployment claims during the week that ended on Nov. 8 numbered 11,323, which was 130 fewer than the previous week.
First-time unemployment claims filed in Oklahoma have surpassed 2,000 only once this year: during the week ending April 5, when initial claims totaled 2,548. The second-biggest number of first-time claims this year was 1,798 filed during the week that ended May 31. During the first 41 weeks of this year, initial unemployment claims filed in this state averaged 1,501 per week.
Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate inched up to 4.4% in September (the latest month for which complete data is available); that indicated more people were looking for work but not finding it. The number of unemployed Americans rose to 7.6 million that month, up from 7.38 million in August.
The Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points on Oct. 29, but Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that the nation’s central bank might pause before lowering borrowing costs even farther anytime soon.
The Fed cut the federal funds rate — what banks charge each other for shortterm loans — to between 3.75% and 4%, down from its prior range of 4% to 4.25%. The Fed reduced rates by the same amount in September, its first cut since December 2024.
During a press conference Oct. 29 to discuss the decision, Powell said another rate cut at its next meeting, set for Dec. 10, “isn’t a foregone conclusion… We’ve cut 50 more basis points in the last two meetings and there’s a sense from some, ‘Let’s pause here,’ and a sense from others, ‘Let’s go ahead.’” The stock market was on a roller coaster last week from volatile trading, yet Walmart reported strong quarterly results.
Job layoffs number in tens of thousands Nationally, employers added 119,000 jobs in September, U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced on Thursday.
However, the federal government has eliminated 97,000 jobs since January.
Verizon is laying off 13,000 employees across its company, CEO Dan Schulman told employees on Thursday. In an internal memo, Schulman wrote that the non-union employees will be laid off due to “cost structure limits.”
U.S. employers issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining and Notification (WARN) notices for 39,000 Americans in October, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland reported.
Amazon, UPS, and Target, three of the largest employers in the U.S., announced recently they intend to lay off tens of thousands of workers in the coming weeks.
Target revealed plans in late October to eliminate 1,800 corporate jobs – its second-largest corporate downsizing.
Amazon announced another round of layoffs just before the holidays. The cuts affected 14,000 corporate employees in multiple departments, and were intended to reduce bureaucracy by “removing layers and shifting resources” to better serve its customers and investors, company executives said.
United Parcel Service has cut 48,000 jobs this year. The Atlanta-based company started 2025 with nearly half a million employees. By the third quarter, 34,000 operational jobs drivers and warehouse workers and 14,000 managerial jobs had been slashed, the largest one-year cut in UPS history.
Numerous other layoffs have been reported, too.
General Motors has shed thousands of workers across salaried and hourly positions this year. Major cuts have targeted the electric vehicle and battery production sector due to slower-than-expected EV adoption and the end of f ederal tax credits. Also, the company restructured its design engineering and IT divisions, leading to hundreds of salaried job cuts; for example, GM is cutting hundreds of jobs at its Georgia IT center.
Ford Motor Company will temporarily lay off 2,000 workers at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky starting in December, although workers are expected to return after the facility is retooled for electric vehicle production.
The nearly year-long shutdown is part of a sweeping overhaul to convert the facility, which opened in 1955, for EV production, adopting advanced manufacturing methods inspired by Tesla. While Ford touts the project as a leap into the future, the transition leaves thousands of workers facing months without steady pay and the region bracing for economic ripple effects.
Ford also has extended layoffs at its mas sive Dearborn Rouge complex, idling both the Dearborn Truck Plant and the adjacent Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where the F-150 Lightning is assembled.
On Nov. 6 a United Auto Workers Local 600 official told workers that both plants – which employ 4,000 UAW members – would be shut, without explanation or any returnto- work date. The same day on which workers received notice that both plants would be idled, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Ford is in “active discussions” about scrapping the F-150 Lightning entirely.
According to The Street, Molson Coors Beverage Company eliminated 400 salaried jobs, which represented approximately 9% of its white-collar workforce. Tech, entertainment, news industries hit The tech industry experienced 62,000 layoffs in the f irst five months of this year.
Approximately 6,000 Microsoft employees were laid off in a move to streamline operations and reduce layers of management. Google, too, made significant cuts to its workforce.
Hewlett Packard planned to lay off between 1,000 and 2,000 employees by October as a cost-saving initiative.
Novo Nordisk announced it plans to cut 9,000 jobs because of falling profits and increased competition.
Tata Consultancy Services announced layoffs of approximately 12,000 people, or about 2% of its workforce.
Cloud applications platform Oracle has already laid off several thousand employees, particularly in its Cloud Infrastructure teams, as part of a $1.6 billion restructuring plan. Oracle is facing challenges in transitioning from traditional software licensing to subscription-based cloud services.
And in the entertainment industry, Paramount Network has initiated signif icant layoffs affecting approximately 2,000 employees in the wake of its merger with Skydance.
The Walt Disney Company to let go of approximately 6% of its employees who worked in the company’s ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks units. The layoffs totaled about 200 employees.
Disneyland Resorts let go approximately 100 employees in late October.
The Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief announced earlier this year that some reporters and editors in San Francisco and New York “will be leaving us,” but she didn’t say how many jobs would be lost.
The Los Angeles Times also lost more than 40 staffers from the newsroom – but from buyouts, not layoffs.
As for just the news segment of the media industry – which includes digital, broadcast, and print – consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported 192 layoffs occurred in January 2025 alone.