The February sub-state unemployment figures were released yesterday. The preliminary Ada unemployment rate improved slightly from 5.8 in January to 5.7, but the labor force size (20,610) shrank by around 150 employees. Because the local figures are not seasonally adjusted, it is typical for local markets to see spikes in January and July as we did. Since unemployment rate did not improve from January, it is more important to pay closer attention to March figures.

The US and Oklahoma rates were unchanged from January at 9.7 and 6.7 respectively. When we compare our labor force to other communities/counties of similar size, only Bryan and Garfield counties have lower unemployment rates than we do.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics designates markets that are associate surrounding counties with the larger markets in each state called Local Labor Markets (LLM). The labor force in the Ada LLM (35,720) decreased in February, but is out performing most of the other markets in the state. Only five LLMs in Oklahoma had a lower unemployment rate. The Ada LLM is actually larger than many more populace cities such as Ponca City, Stillwater, Bartlesville, Duncan and McAlester.