Most counties show increase in unemployment rate in December

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission released its latest unemployment statistics today, with most counties showing higher unemployment rates than a year earlier.

In December, McIntosh County posted Oklahoma’s highest county unemployment rate of 9.2 percent. Stephens County had the second highest rate for the month, while Latimer County reported the state’s third highest rate.

Cimarron County claimed the lowest county unemployment rate of 1.9 percent. Unemployment rates were higher than a year earlier in 64 of 77 counties, unchanged in six counties and lower in seven counties.

In Kay County, the labor force in December 2016 was 18,964, with 17,771 employed. Those unemployed numbered 1,193.

Those numbers compare to a November 2016 labor force of 19,001, with 17,851 employed and 1,150 unemployed.

Kay County’s unemployment rate for December 2016 was 6.3 percent, compared to 6.1 percent in November 2016 and 6.5 percent in October 2016. The rate for December 2015 was 5.7 percent.

Kay County’s employment rate was ranked 60th among Oklahoma’s 77 counties.