Tag: Economic downturn

Numbers You Need – May 2009

Numbers You Need is a monthly publication from OK Policy that presents key data on the state’s economy, work force, human services, and budget in one concise, easy-to-read fact sheet. The forecasters may be predicting an economic turnaround ahead, but… Read more [More...]

Why not now?

State Rainy Day Funds have one sole purpose: to be used during economic downturns to minimize the extent of cuts to public services and to avert tax increases. Prior to this downturn, Oklahoma has been able to build up our… Read more [More...]

How long will it last and how bad will it get?

Last week, my colleagues and I were treated to a superb overview on the U.S. and Oklahoma economic outlook by Chad Wilkerson, an economist who heads up the Oklahoma City Branch Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City,… Read more [More...]

An Oklahoma Standard

It seems that with each passing day we hear news reports of companies cutting jobs, closing branches or plants, or slashing wages of the workers in order to prevent having to lay anyone off. Maybe that is why the recent… Read more [More...]

Shelter from the storm

A recent piece in the Tulsa World by staff writer Michael Overall presented a moving look at the efforts of Tulsa’s two domestic violence shelters, Day Spring and Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS), to cope with rising demands for services.… Read more [More...]

Numbers You Need – April 2009

Numbers You Need is a monthly publication from OK Policy that presents key data on the state’s economy, work force, human services, and budget in one concise easy-to-read fact sheet. April’s edition of Numbers You Need provides further evidence of… Read more [More...]

What if we threw a recession and no one showed up at the welfare office?

As the economic downturn hits the Sooner State, we are seeing a steadily increasing number of hard-pressed families turning to the Food Stamp Program (now renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for help in making ends meet. Food stamp participation… Read more [More...]

Step away from the scissors?

Two hundred economists from 37 states–including the University of Tulsa’s Steve Steib have joined the rising chorus of voices cautioning states against solving short-term deficits by cutting budgets and public services.  They’re urging states to: Maintain the public services that… Read more [More...]

Immigrants in an economic downturn

The New York Times has been running a series of front-page Sunday articles examining the impact that the great wave of recent immigration – both legal and illegal – is having on various sectors and institutions. This week’s piece explored… Read more [More...]

Falling, falling

As we showed in the March edition of Numbers You Need, the number of laid-off Oklahomans receiving unemployment benefits is skyrocketing. An average of 4,881 workers filed first-time claims in January, an increase of 149 percent compared to September 2008.… Read more [More...]