The unemployment rate for Cleveland County is one of the lowest in 10 years but the number of people working is also reported to be declining.
According to the Cleveland County Herald, the unemployment rate for October was 3.2 percent, that matches the rate for April and is close to the record of 3.0 reported in October 2023.
The figures were provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the October rate made four straight months of decline.
The newspaper reported that the rate peaked at 4.4 percent in July before dropping to 4.0 in August and 3.3 percent in September.
The rate was also below of some neighboring while slightly above Calhoun County (2.9 percent) and Grant County (2.2 percent).
Jefferson County (4.4 percent), Lincoln County (4.3 percent) Drew County (3.9 percent), and Dallas County (3.3 percent) were all above Cleveland County.
Also based on numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the number of people working in Cleveland County has declined since March 2006. In April of that year, there were 4,294 estimated people working and fell to an all-time low of 2,960 people working in December 2023.
The latest estimate is that there are 3,050 people working as of October 2024.
