Oklahoma Unemployment Drops

The unemployment rate for Oklahoma declined
to 6.1 percent in January.
The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported Tuesday
that the jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points from December’s
rate. The commission reports that 109,060 Oklahomans were out of
work that month, down from 112,710 at the end of 2011.
Officials say non-farm employment for Oklahoma expanded by 4,700
jobs from December to January. From January 2011 to January 2012,
29,800 jobs were gained, an increase of 1.9 percent.
Commission statistics show 1,600 jobs were gained in the mining
and logging sectors, 1,500 in the financial activities sector and
1,300 came in the manufacturing sector.
As many as 1,100 jobs were lost in the construction sector and
300 were lost in the educational and health services area.