State unemployment claims down from previous week

New state unemployment claims decreased slightly last week from the previous week, state officials said.

For the week ending Oct. 31, the advance number of initial claims, unadjusted, totaled 4,255, a decrease of 760 from the previous week's revised level of 5,015.

Initial claims' fourweek moving average was 5,020, a decrease of 381 from the previous week's revised average of 5,401.

The advance unadjusted number of continued claims totaled 50,911, a decrease of 16,950 from the previous week's revised level of 67,861.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission ( OESC) touted that its first-call resolution hit 69.67%, a continued improvement from early August where the agency reported 43% first-call resolution, and a significant improvement from early in the pandemic when first-call resolution was under 5%.

This means that nearly 70% of claimants who are calling to get assistance with unemployment claims are getting the help they need without requiring further assistance, the agency said.

“It's incredible to see the first-call resolution percentage continue to climb as improving our processes and systems has been a major focus for us,” said OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt. “This is a significant improvement, and we will continue to work to help those in need as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, OESC has paid $3.5 billion in benefits to claimants, surpassing the total disbursements from 2010 to 2019.

“In roughly eight months, OESC has paid out more than the last decade combined,” Zumwalt said. “Over those months and even now, OESC continues to work tirelessly to payout claims and solve claimant's issues. Even with an outdated system and limited full-time employees to handle the high number of claims, we've processed more than 800,000 claims to help those that need it most.”

Nationally, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits also fell slightly last week to 751,000, a still-historically high level that shows that many employers keep cutting jobs in the face of the accelerating pandemic.

A surge in viral cases and Congress' failure so far to provide more aid for struggling individuals and businesses are threatening to deepen Americans' economic pain. Eight months after the pandemic flattened the economy, weekly jobless claims still point to a stream of layoffs. Before the virus struck in March, the weekly figure had remained below 300,000 for more than five straight years.

Thursday's report from the Labor Department said the number of people who are continuing to receive traditional unemployment benefits declined to 7.3 million. That figure shows that some of the unemployed are being recalled to their old jobs or are finding new ones. But it also indicates that many jobless Americans have used up their state unemployment aid — which typically expires after six months — and have transitioned to a federal extended benefits program that lasts an additional 13 weeks.

The job market has been under pressure since the virus paralyzed the economy and has regained barely half the 22 million jobs that were lost to the pandemic in early spring. The pace of rehiring has steadily weakened — from 4.8 million added jobs in June to 661,000 in September. On Friday, when the government issues the October jobs report, economists foresee a further slowdown — to 580,000 added jobs — according to a survey by the data firm FactSet.

Last week, nearly 363,000 people applied for jobless aid under a new program that extended eligibility for the first time to self-employed and gig workers, up slightly from 359,000 the previous week. That figure isn't adjusted for seasonal trends, so it's reported separately.

All told, the Labor Department said 21.5 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, though the figure may be inflated by double- counting by states.