Tag: unemployment

Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap (Part Two): Why the labor market isn't colorblind

This post is the second in a three-part series on “Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap,” examining the persistence of racial disparities in unemployment.  Part One introduced the unemployment gap and presents preliminary descriptive data on state labor market trends by race.  Part… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk – July 29, 2011

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts. This week at OK Policy, we reported on the first meeting of a legislative task force to evaluate state… Read more [More...]

Falling Unemployment: Are workers getting jobs or getting discouraged?

The national unemployment rate rose for the second consecutive month in May, edging up to 9.1 percent. Fortunately for Oklahoma, the unemployment rate is moving in the opposite direction, dropping for a fifth consecutive month in April to 5.6 percent,… Read more [More...]

State seeing some job growth, but still a long ways to go

This week, OK Policy put out the latest edition of Numbers You Need, our monthly bulletin of key economic and budget indicators for the state. Our main headline was of an economic recovery stuck in neutral. While there are certain… Read more [More...]

Nearing exhaustion: As recession drags on, long-term unemployed risk losing benefits

Our October edition of Numbers You Need is now out, providing a snapshot of economic and budget trends in Oklahoma through monthly data on jobs, inflation, public benefits, and state revenues, as well as the most recent quarterly data on… Read more [More...]

Slate's job change map–now it's good to be a blue state!

Check out Slate.com’s animated map of the changing job picture over the last three and a half years. If you scroll down to the map and click the green arrow at the lower right, you can watch the job picture… Read more [More...]

Man, oh, man – The downturn hammers male employment

The Oklahoman recently ran an editorial calling attention to the especially heavy toll that the current recession is having on male workers nationally and here in Oklahoma. A new issue brief from Economic Policy Institute, using data from the Bureau… Read more [More...]

Easy money

Sunday’s Tulsa World reports that one of many important decisions left to the last week of the legislative session is whether to modernize Oklahoma’s unemployment insurance (UI) system to qualify for $75 million in additional federal stimulus money. According to… 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...]