Report: Jobless claims declined last week in Oklahoma

The U.S. Labor Department reported 1,834 initial claims were filed the week ending Saturday in the state, a 33.6% decline from the prior week when a revised 2,760 claims were logged.

Continued claims, those filed after one week of unemployment, declined in the state from 14,177 claims the week ending Jan. 1, to 11,803 claims the following week, a 16.7% drop.

As a comparison, weekly continued claims in January 2020 ranged between 17,000 and 19,000.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, which doesn’t comment on new figures until they are revised a week later, said the labor market appeared to be returning to pre-COVID-19 seasonal patterns.

“We believe the increases we have seen in the last couple of weeks could be reflective of a return to a pre-COVID environment where we will see seasonal patterns that impact week-over-week numbers with increases and decreases,” said OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of both initial and continued claims increased slightly.

The four-week moving average of initial claims increased from 2,018 the week ending Jan. 1 to 2,266 claims the following week.

Continued claims increased from 13,496 the week ending Dec. 25 to 13,540 the following week.

“As we move into 2022, continued claims numbers are lower than pre-pandemic claims, which indicates the strength of our economy and the continued recovery from the unprecedented past two years,” Zumwalt said. “When comparing the current continued claims’ four-week moving average to March 2020 before the surge in unemployment numbers, today’s reported numbers are 20% lower than before the pandemic.”

All six states bordering Oklahoma reported a decline in initial claims for the week ending Saturday.

Nationally, initial claims increased by 55,000 to 286,000 the week ending Saturday while continued claims increased by 84,000 to 1,635,000 the week ending Jan. 8, according to revised figures.

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