Oklahoma adding jobs despite national downturn

The Norman Transcript

April 22, 2008 11:29 am

— Our governor, business leaders and area Realtors keep telling us that the economic turbulence that has hit much of the country seems to have missed us. We got another sign of that this past week.
Oklahoma appears to be adding jobs while much of the nation is losing them. Non-farm employers added more than 11,000 jobs in March.
The state's unemployment rate continues to drop. The statewide rate for March was 3.2 percent, down from 3.5 percent in February and 4.2 percent in January. A year ago, the rate was 4.3 percent.
Nationwide, during the same period, unemployment has risen. The national rate for March 2008 is 5.1 percent compared to 4.8 percent in February and 4.9 percent in January. A year ago, the national unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.
State officials say many of the new jobs came from the service providing industries. The only category to lose jobs in Oklahoma in March was manufacturing which lost a net of 100 jobs. For the year, Oklahoma has added 15,700 new jobs.