This story originally appeared on VeloCity.
In December, the Oklahoma City MSA unemployment rate held steady at 2.8%, unchanged from November. The metro has now experienced 41 consecutive months with an unemployment rate below 4%, marking the longest such streak in modern history. The December unemployment rate remains preliminary and subject to revision.
Statewide, unemployment rates were lower than a year ago in 55 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, higher in 12 counties and unchanged in 10 counties.
Among large metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million, Oklahoma City had the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in December. Minneapolis, Minnesota, recorded the lowest at 2.5%, while Las Vegas, Nevada, had the highest at 5.9%.
For December,
- Oklahoma County unemployment was 3.0% (unchanged from 3.0% prior month)
- State of Oklahoma unemployment was 3.3% (unchanged from 3.3% prior month)
- Tulsa MSA unemployment was 2.9% (improvement from 3.0% prior month)
- United States unemployment in December was 4.1% (improvement from 4.2% prior month)
For more details, please visit:
- Oklahoma Employment Report (includes Greater OKC Partnership county level data: https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/oesc/documents/labor-market/reports/2025/subarea/county-report-2025-02-05.pdf
- BLS Metropolitan Economic News Release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.nr0.htm
- Unemployment Rate Rankings for Large Metros: https://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laulrgma.htm
- Oklahoma LAUS Data Report: https://oklahoma.gov/oesc/labor-market/local-area-statistics.html
Close monitoring of upcoming release dates will be helpful. Assuming no disruption takes place in the collection process, the release dates are as follows:
- United States unemployment: January Unemployment numbers will be released on February 7, 2025
- State of Oklahoma unemployment: January Unemployment will be released on March 17, 2025
- Metro and County level unemployment: January Unemployment will be released on March 21, 2025.
