Unemployment claims continue decline

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) recently reported a decline in continued and initial unemployment claims. The four-week moving average of continuing claims declined for the 35th consecutive week.

Unions decline in state, U.S.

Union membership in Oklahoma dropped slightly in the past two years, from 6.2% of wage and salary workers in 2019 to 6.0% last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s union membership rate peaked in 1990, when it averaged 10.6%, and fell to a low point of 5.

Decline in energy sector is 'deepest in last 20 years'

OKLAHOMA CITY – The pace of decline in Oklahoma’s energy production sector is “accelerating into the deepest contraction in the last 20 years,” Jerry Bohnen wrote in OK Energy Today, a daily report of which he is the managing editor. The Energy Index contracted sharply in April, Bohnen reported.