On Friday, August 5th, Moore Norman Technology Center’s HIRE program and the Sooner Human Resource Society are hosting a one-of-a-kind workshop in partnership with The State Chamber, the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, DHS, State Regents for Higher Ed, Dept. of Career Tech, Dept. of Corrections, et al.

The conference, “Barriers and Bridges…Reframing your Corporate Culture,” will address the economic cultures and challenges that develop with long-term unemployment, as well as sessions designed to address employer questions and concerns about hiring those with criminal backgrounds.  With increasing numbers of males and females being released to return to our communities, the discussion is important and timely. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is the first in a three-part series on “Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap,” examining the persistence of racial disparities in unemployment.  Part One introduces the unemployment gap and presents preliminary descriptive data on state labor market trends by race.  Part Two explores underlying and immediate causes for the state’s black-white unemployment gap and suggests reasons for its persistence.  Part Three evaluates solutions for addressing and closing the gap.

LIFE Photograph by M. Bourke-White, 1937

Black unemployment in the United States has reached depression-era levels in the wake of the Great Recession, and some speculate that long-term unemployment is reversing decades of black economic gains.  Black unemployment at the state level mirrors the national trend.  Oklahoma experienced a comparatively less severe recession and maintains one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.  Yet black workers in the state were unemployed at more than twice the rate (13.1 percent) of white workers (5.9 percent) in 2010.  This is comparable to the national gap – where the unemployment rate for black workers is about twice (16.2 percent) that of whites (8 percent).  Andy Kroll at Salon.com explains that this entrenched unemployment gap has a puzzling statistical persistence:

The unemployment lines run through history like a pair of train tracks. Since the 1940s, the jobless rate for blacks in America has held remarkably, if grimly, steady at twice the rate for whites. The question why has vexed and divided economists, historians and sociologists for nearly as long. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Wednesday, Chris Linder was sworn into office as mayor of Pawnee, but he may not be allowed to serve. In 2000, Linder was convicted of a felony in Arizona for his role in a drug deal and gun battle. He served five years in prison and three years of probation.

After completing his sentence two years ago, Linder moved to Pawnee with his wife. He bought a local restaurant, volunteered with the Chamber of Commerce and as a baseball coach, and joined the First Baptist Church. He was elected mayor in April, beating out the incumbent and another former mayor. The felony became public during the campaign, but a plurality of voters believed he was the right person to lead the city anyway.

What they didn’t know was that Oklahoma law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from holding a public office for 15 years after their sentence is completed. Linder applied for a pardon after learning about the law, but Arizona turned him down. Read the rest of this entry »

The nation continues to show signs that it is emerging from the deep and prolonged economic recession that began in late 2007.  April’s edition of Numbers You Need, our monthly bulletin of key economic and budget trends, paints a mixed but mostly positive picture of economic recovery in Oklahoma. While the state was not the hardest hit during the recession, we saw noticeable spikes in unemployment, foreclosures, and bankruptcies, and increased reliance on social safety nets like food stamps.  Considering Oklahoma came late to the recession, might it also be late in joining the recovery?  That doesn’t appear to be the case.  The most recent data suggest that Oklahoma may be slightly outpacing the nation in two key areas of economic growth: personal income and employment.

Personal income growth in Oklahoma paints an encouraging picture of economic recovery over the last year.   Personal income is reported quarterly and encompasses all of the different kinds of income received by Oklahomans.  When personal income rises, so does the amount citizens have available to spend, save, or invest in the economy.  Tax revenues also increase with personal income, meaning states have more to spend on infrastructure and social services.  Since a large majority of small business income is reported as personal income, it is an excellent overall measure of the health and growth of the state’s economy.

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The Brookings Institution recently released a study of the continuing shift of jobs away from cities and toward the suburbs. According to Job Sprawl Revisited: The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Employment, only 21 percent of Americans who live in metropolitan areas work within three miles of a downtown area. All but three of the 98 areas studied have seen jobs move further away from the city center from 1998 to 2006. Nearly every industry is involved in this outward shift.

Only 21 percent of employees in the largest 98 metro areas work within three miles of downtown, while over twice that share (45 percent) work more than 10 miles away from the city center.

Oklahoma’s major metropolitan areas are joining in this trend. Our jobs are not as spread out as most metro areas, but lately they have been spreading faster. Just under a quarter of Oklahoma City (23.9 percent) and Tulsa (23.1 percent) jobs are 10 or more miles from the city center, compared to the national average of 45 percent. From 1998-2006, Oklahoma City share of jobs in this “outer ring” has grown by 4.6 percentage points; in Tulsa it grew by 3.8 percentage points. Both are considerably higher than the national average growth of 2.6 percent.

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