Oklahoma's jobless rate falls

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's jobless rate dropped in February to 4.8 percent, the lowest in the region, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported. <br/><br/>Oklahoma added 11,800 jobs

Saturday, April 2nd 2005, 4:08 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's jobless rate dropped in February to 4.8 percent, the lowest in the region, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported.

Oklahoma added 11,800 jobs in February, helped by gains in both the goods-producing and service-producing sectors.

The number of unemployed fell almost 9 percent in February to 81,600, the commission said Friday. More than 1.627 million Oklahomans had jobs.

``February proved to be a month of growth across the state,'' said Lynn Gray, the commission's managing economist. ``Strong over-the-year movement was seen across many industries. In fact, a majority of the losses seen this month were seasonal in nature.''

Oklahoma has added 27,100 jobs since February 2004, an increase of 1.9 percent. Employment in the leisure and hospitality sector has grown by 3 percent, or 3,700 jobs, since last February. Meanwhile, more jobs in local government helped the government sector record a 3.2 percent employment increase over the year.

Oklahoma's nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate of 4.8 percent in February was the lowest among surrounding states. Missouri's unemployment rate of 6.4 percent led the seven-state region.

Separately, the federal Labor Department said Friday the country added 110,000 jobs in March. The report was weaker than expected, which analysts attributed to higher energy and commodity prices weighing on employers.

The national jobless rate fell to 5.2 percent in March, down from 5.4 percent in February.

State jobless statistics typically lag national statistics by several months. Apart from the state and large metropolitan area levels, state numbers also aren't adjusted for seasonal variations because of smaller sample sizes in counties and towns.

Among metropolitan areas in February, Oklahoma City had a nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate of 4.4 percent. Tulsa's unemployment rate was 4.7 percent and Lawton posted a rate of 4.6 percent.

Coal County in southeast Oklahoma had the highest jobless rate at 9.1 percent, while Roger Mills County in far western Oklahoma had the state's lowest at 2.8 percent in February.