OKLAHOMA CITY – First-time unemployment claims filed in Oklahoma during the week that ended Nov. 12 were the second-lowest number logged in 33 years.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that 899 initial claims for unemployment benefits were filed in the Sooner State that week. That was 195 fewer than were filed the week before.
The unadjusted number of initial claims filed in the week that ended Nov. 5 totaled 1,094, which was a decrease of 48 from the previous week. For that same week, the unadjusted number of continuing claims totaled 9,299, an increase of 77 from the previous week.
The fewest number of first-time unemployment claims filed in Oklahoma was 184 during the week of Oct. 28, 1989, according to records of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission dating back to 1987.
The only other time jobless claims were even remotely close to that figure was five years ago, when 986 first-time claims were reported on Sept. 23, 2017.
The highest number of unemployment claims logged in state history occurred in the week that ended on June 13, 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse in the oil patch. On that date a record 84,779 first-time claims and 182,191 continuing claims were reported.