In-state weekly unemployment claims dip by 15% sustaining six-month overall decline in Oklahoma

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that 5,948 workers filed initial jobless claims last week, compared to a revised 7,017 the prior week.

While jobless claim figures often are revised upward after they are initially reported, this is the first time since late July that the revised initial claims figure was more than 7,000 for one week.

Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt noted the increase in written remarks released Thursday.

“After a slight increase in initial claims last week, it is encouraging to see that initial claims declined this week and continued claims have steadily declined for more than 30 weeks,” Zumwalt said.

“This week, we saw a rise in the initial claims four-week moving average, which is to be expected after the increase in initial claims last week. Our team is continuing to put claimants first and ensuring that Oklahomans get the benefits they need.”

Continued claims, meanwhile, declined nearly 17% the week ending Jan. 9 when a revised 41,475 claims were filed, compared to 34,591 claims the following week.

The 41,475 claims filed the week ending Jan. 9 represents 2.6% of the state workforce as receiving jobless benefits.

The OESC on Jan. 8 paid out its first batch of benefits under the temporary federal Continued Assistance Act.

The state was on track to distribute additional Continued Assistance Act payments to “a vast majority” of Oklahoma workers on Jan. 25, according to Zumwalt.

Nationwide, seasonally adjusted, initial claims declined slightly, from 926,000 the week ending Jan. 9 to 900,000 the week ending Saturday.

U.S. workers filed 15,994,519 continued claims the week ending Jan. 2 compared to 18.4 million the prior week, according to unadjusted data.

Oklahoma governor addresses state unemployment on Oct. 20