BETTER OUTLOOK

Most Oklahoma counties and largest metro areas showed improvement in June unemployment rates compared to last year

Most Oklahoma counties and the state's largest metro areas showed improvement in June unemployment rates compared to last year, despite a statewide worsening since May.

The jobless rate fell 0.2 of a percentage point in the Oklahoma City metro area and 0.3 of a percentage point in the Tulsa metro area since June 2018, hitting rates of 3.2% and 3.4%, respectively. These rates are higher than the May numbers, when unemployment was at 2.9% in Oklahoma City and 3.1% in Tulsa.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission

released a report Thursday showing the June 2019 unemployment rates for all 77 Oklahoma counties ranged from a low of 1.9% in Alfalfa county up to a high of 6.2% in Latimer and McIntosh counties.

Unemployment rates grew in all 77 counties since May.

However, the rates were improved in June from a year earlier in 70 counties. Grant and Le Flore counties had an unchanged rate compared to last year, and Atoka, Harper, Hughes, Roger Mills and Stephens counties all worsened.

The statewide jobless rate for June was 3.4%.

Oklahoma County and Tulsa County registered rates of 3.2% and 3.3%, respectively, in June.

The Oklahoma City metropolitan area had a labor force of 694,038 in June, with 672,160 employed and 21,878 unemployed during that time.

The Tulsa metropolitan area had a labor force of 482,061, with 465,682 employed and 16,379 unemployed.

Other state metropolitan area unemployment rates include Lawton, with 3.7%; Enid, with 3.1%; and the Oklahoma portion of the Fort Smith metro area, with 4.6%.

The state's four regional nonmetropolitan areas had June jobless rates of 4.0% in the northeast, 3.1% in the northwest, 3.4% in the southwest and 3.9% in the southeast, the commission said.