The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports this morning that Oklahoma's unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 5.0% in May from 4.9% in April. This coincides with a decline in state nonfarm employment for the month of 1300 jobs. Oklahoma was one of only 17 states who had an increase in unemployment last month...Clearly, this is a weak jobs report for Oklahoma.
While some of this weakness might be attributed to the severe weather the state saw in May, some of it could well be detecting the general economic weakness plaguing the state for months. Labor market data tends to lag economic activity by several months. Since my data has shown that the state economy has been weak for most of the last 10 months, this weakness might still be affecting May's jobs numbers.
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