OKLAHOMA CITY – Toward the end of last month the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) reported a decline in new unemployment claims but an increase in continued claims.
On a positive note, the agency said that more than 8,000 job openings were available at upcoming career fairs, including one in Lawton at the Hilton Garden Inn on May 14.
Fifteen employers representing nearly 600 open positions have signed up for the Lawton career fair, the OESC reported Tuesday. Those employers included:
• Apache Casino Hotel
• Aries Building Systems
• Army & Air Force Exchange Service
• Boss Truck Shops, Inc.
• Carpenters Local 329
• Chandler Hospitality Group
• Comanche County Detention Center
• Elara Caring home-based care
• FSNB, N.A
• Goodwill Industries of Southwest Oklahoma & North Texas, Inc.
• Gore Nitrogen Pumping Service, LLC
• Locke Supply Co.
• Mays Home Care
• Sigma
• U.S. Postal Service
The OESC job fair in Lawton will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Veterans will have the opportunity to begin participating early: from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Any claimant who attends the career fair fulfills his/her work search requirement.
In a related matter, a career fair April 29 at City Hall hosted by the City of Lawton attracted 76 attendees, and 79 job applications were submitted, according to Community Relations Director Tiffany Martinez Vrska. That was an average of one application every 3.79 minutes throughout the five-hour event.
Approximately 100,000 Oklahomans were receiving unemployment benefits on April 28, OESC spokesman Nick Buscemi said. At the same time a year ago, close to 275,000 Oklahomans were out of work because of job losses in the energy sector compounded by the mounting coronavirus pandemic, OESC records reflect.
Oklahoma’s preliminary unemployment rate for March 2021 was 4.2%, the OESC reported.
“For the third consecutive week we saw an increase in continued claims and in the continued claims’ four-week moving average,” OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt said recently. “With the decline in initial claims and the upcoming career fairs OESC will host throughout the state, we are hopeful that we will make progress on unemployment and get more Oklahomans back to work,” she said.
Employers already registered for the job fairs represent more than 8,000 open positions, Zumwalt said. “Businesses have safely reopened, and we’re confident we can help rebuild Oklahoma’s workforce through these re-employment efforts.”
Besides Lawton’s, other OESC career fairs will include: Tulsa Expo Square, May 6-7; McAlester Expo Center, May 10; Enid Stride Bank Center, May 12; Oklahoma City Convention Center, May 17-18; and a virtual career that started May 5 and continues through May 28.
More than 200 employers had registered to participate in one or more of the career fairs by April 28, Zumwalt said. Employers can register to participate in the career fairs at http://regpack.com/reg/OESC, and individuals seeking a job can register at http://regpack.com/reg/oesc21.
Nationally, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims during the week ending April 24 was 553,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the U.S. Department of Labor reported. The four-week moving average was 611,750, a decrease of 44,000 from the week before.
For the week ending April 17, the U.S. Labor Department reported the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6%, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.