- June 2, 2021
- Oklahoma Policy Institute
- Courtney Cullison
Since March 15, more than 450,000 people have filed new unemployment claims in Oklahoma. These unemployment claims make up nearly 10 percent of our civilian labor force, and it means that a lot of Oklahomans are out of work. For comparison, we’ve seen more claims since mid-March than we saw in all of 2009, the year during the Great Recession that Oklahoma saw the largest number of new unemployment claims. Unemployment insurance will be a critical piece of our ability to weather and recover from this economic and public health emergency. It is in everyone’s best interest for the system to be robust and accessible to all who need it.