From the Ada Evening News:

    Mike Southard, Ada Jobs Foundation president and CEO, said Ada’s economic figures have been showing positive signs.

    “The unemployment rate dropped and the workforce increased.  Those are trends in the right direction,” Southard said.

    The unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 percent from 5.7 percent in February, he said.

    “We’re still almost 50 percent below the federal unemployment rate for the same month,” he said.  “The federal unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.”

    Southard said Ada has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state and, as reported in the Ada Evening News on April 15, February’s retail sales rose.

    “When combined with the March Sales Tax deposit from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Ada appears to be coming out of the slumping economy,” he said.

    He said Ada’s April sales tax deposit report will be published soon.

    “Everything seems to be trending in a positive manner.  From the state’s perspective, things seem to be moving in the right direction but we’re even out-pacing what the state is seeing,” he said.