Unemployment Tops 50,000 in Oklahoma

Oklahoma continues to parallel the nation in the extraordinary number of initial claims for unemployment insurance as COVID-19 related closures and declines in the oil patch put more people out of work.

For the week ending April 4, 2020, unadjusted initial claims in Oklahoma totaled 51,124, an increase of 3,380 from the previous record-setting adjusted week high of 47,744, revised up from the initially reported total of 44,970.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted initial claims totaled 6,606,000, a decrease of 261,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 6,867,000. This marks the second highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of this series.

“Oklahomans are seeking relief for their families in the wake of incomparable business closures and job losses,” said OESC Executive Director Robin Roberson. “We have dramatically ramped up the number of employees available to assist callers. Our agency website is undergoing a significant transformation to improve the user-experience and simplify the claims filing process. We’re also holding a virtual Town Hall at 1:00 pm on Friday for an estimated 50,000 claimants and the general public to provide answers to questions about Unemployment Insurance, the claims filing process, and more.”

OESC will contact 30,000 claimants directly about tomorrow’s 1:00 pm virtual Town Hall event. Other individuals may register for the event through EventBrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/d/online/oesc/ and clicking on the Town Hall event.

Registration is free. Please provide your name and email address.

Individuals who would like to participate in the virtual town hall may also do so at https://video.teleforumonline.com/video/streaming.php?client=19272