LAWTON - According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the April unemployment rate for the Lawton Metropolitan Statistical Area was the lowest level seen since the Great Recession.
While similar results have been noted nationwide over the last 10 years, the U.S. economy has maintained the longest period of expansion in history, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Lawton and southwest Oklahoma seem to be an anomaly.
FEWER AVAILABLE
JOBS CREATES
PERCEPTION OF LOWER
UNEMPLOYMENT
As of April 2019, the unemployment rate in the Lawton area stood at just 3%, less than half of the most recent peak in January 2012, at over 6% unemployment.
Although low unemployment rates can be a sign of a robust economy, they can also be misleading.
The number of available (non-farm related) jobs in the area peaked in 2010 at over 56,000. Today, that number is barely above 50,000, and appears to continue to be declining.
The largest notable factor is the government sector, which has seen a decline of over 2000 available jobs since also peaking in 2010.
It is likely that temporary jobs related to BRAC, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, contributed to this spike in jobs while the available workforce remained stagnant.
Comparatively, the state of Oklahoma as a whole has seen a steady increase in both available jobs and workforce over the same decade. Currently the unemployment rate for the state is at 3.2%, the lowest rate since it dipped below 3% at the turn of the century. https://www.bls.gov/data/