March figures continued to shine when the labor force data was released earlier this week. The Ada MSA labor force grew by nearly 300 employees to 20,900 and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.1% compared to 5.7% in February. This reflects favorably on our local economy because both the state and federal figures were not as good. While the Oklahoma unemployment rate dropped from 6.8 to 6.6 in March, the labor force declined as well (approximately 2,500 employees). The US rate remained at 9.7% for the third straight month and labor force had a slight increase for the fourth straight month.

    Ada continues to be one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. The national and state figures for April should be released over the next two to three weeks, so it will be interesting to see how Ada continues to trend.

    When combined with the March Sales Tax deposit from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Ada appears to be coming out of the slumping economy. The April sales tax deposit report will be published late next week which will reflect March retail sales. Keep your fingers crossed that we have another increase.

Mike Southard