Jobless Claims for Oklahoma Continues to Rise

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reports that more than 68,000 jobless claims were filed for the week ending May 2nd. That is an increase of 15,000 claims from the week before.
On the week ending April 25th, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission was making weekly compensation payments to nearly 155,000 people, this according to the U.S. Department of Labor data released on Thursday evening. Statewide unemployment rates will be released on Tuesday, May 12th.
  The United States unemployment numbers were released for the month of April and hit a staggering 14.7 percent. This marks the highest rate since the Great Depression in September of 1945. The 14.7 percent rate represents the U.S. economy losing more than 20 million jobs in April alone. 
In February, the unemployment rate stood at a five-decade low at 3.5 percent. Employers had added jobs for 113 consecutive months. In March, the unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s report stated that many people who lost jobs in April, but didn’t look for another job weren’t counted in the unemployment rate. There is an additional 5.1 million other Americans who have had their hours cut during the last month. A measure of the unemployed plus full-time workers who reduced to part-time has been is at 22.8 percent, a record high as well.
State-by-state numbers haven’t yet been released.