July 2012 Oklahoma Employment Numbers

Unemployment

Initial claims rose from 2,326 week ending 7/7/2012 to 2,343 the week ending 7/28/2012, or an increase of 17 new claims filed during July.

Continued claims increased by 96 from 23,261 from the 6/30/2012 week to 23,357 for the week ending 7/21/2012.

According to the BLS the number of unemployed persons in July decreased by 4,125 from June to 92,307. This is almost an 4% increase from June. This brings the July Unemployment Rate to 5.1% in Oklahoma. This is over 3% lower than the national rate reported as 8.3%

Employed

The total number of employed persons declined by 6,671 from June to July bringing the total employed to 1,718,230 in July in Oklahoma.

The labor force decreased by 10,796 persons in July to 1,810,537 from the 1,821,333 in June.

 

Definitions

Labor force (Current Population Survey)The labor force includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the definitions contained in this glossary.

Employed persons (Current Population Survey) Persons 16 years and over in the civilian non-institutional population who, during the reference week, (a) did any work at all (at least 1 hour) as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family; and (b) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job. Excluded are persons whose only activity consisted of work around their own house (painting, repairing, or own home housework) or volunteer work for religious, charitable, and other organizations.

Unemployed persons (Current Population Survey) Persons aged 16 years and older who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.