Oklahoma Unemployment Claims Continue To Climb Amid State's Coronavirus Outbreak

More Oklahomans are losing their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission said the numbers across the country are unprecedented.

In just the past week in Oklahoma, 44,970 people filed initial claims of unemployment, which is about a 23,000 person increase from the previous week.

The OESC said they've re-assigned staff members to help handle all of the claims.

Because they’re getting so many calls, they're encouraging people to file online, even if they're not sure they even qualify for unemployment benefits.

Despite the huge numbers, the OESC said they are not seeing any delays in payments, which come on a debit card.

The state also got rid of the one-week waiting period to file to make things easier.

OESC Executive Director Robin Roberson said the state is about two weeks away from receiving extra federal funding from the CARES act.

"I don't want people to worry about their unemployment check,” said Roberson. “There will be funds there. We have the seventh most solvent trust fund in the whole nation. If that does get exhausted, the state kicks in at that time, so people don't need to worry about that at all."