| Updated: 12/29/2008 7:39 pm |
Published: 12/29/2008 7:37 pm
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As a roller-coaster year for Wall Street winds down, thousands of unemployed Oklahomans are gearing up for what could be a long and rough road finding a new job. As FOX 23’s Douglas Clark reports, the dismal job market could finally be hitting Green Country.
With the end of the holiday season fast approaching, retailers big and small will be laying off seasonal workers as they try to trim costs. But it won’t just be the seasonal hires making up the bulk of the newly unemployed. A growing number have lost their permanent jobs.
As the calendar winds down, Barbara Clyma with Workforce Oklahoma says so do the days of bucking national unemployment trends.
“I think that finally, it’s starting to hit Oklahoma,” says Clyma. “And we don’t know how bad it’s going to hit yet. But it’s starting, we’re seeing the increase in the number of unemployed people coming in.”
In November, the state’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.7%, still below the national rate of 6.7%.
But Clyma says the gap could narrow as more people than ever line up for help finding a new job.
“It’s not been quite this busy in some time,” she says.
After 9 years with the same company and 50 years in the workforce…
William McAlexander is now making job hunting his new full-time job.
“Working on updating my resume,” he says.
And like many upgrading his skills as well.
On the national front, the numbers could get worse before they get better. Some analysts are predicting the unemployment rate could jump to as high as 9% by the end of 2009.
