Five Workforce Centers Shut Doors Across Oklahoma

Monday, December 19th 2016, 5:52 pm

By: News On 6

Monday, five Workforce Centers shut down due to federal budget cuts. Centers were closed in Sand Springs, Claremore, Sallisaw, Stilwell and Holdenville.

Everyday dozens of people trickle through the workforce doors, looking for help with filing unemployment claims and getting back to work.

But Monday, movers worked to pack up the old Workforce Center in Claremore, and many people are frustrated.

"By the time I got there everybody was moving everything around," client Ryan Reed said.

Rogers County Commissioner Dan DeLozier said, "We need to look at what the impact is gonna be on the community before we close these things."

Reed said he's shocked to see the doors closed. Now he'll have to drive miles away to the Pryor or Tulsa workforce.

"I have to drive another 20 minutes out of the way. It's really frustrating," he said. "I'm using my girlfriend’s vehicle, so I have to go around her schedule."

In the last 25 years, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission representatives said funding has dropped from $14 million to $7 million, so they've had to offer buyouts to some employees and shut down and consolidate offices.

6/29/2016 Related Story: As OK Unemployment Rises, Workforce Centers See Funding Cut

Delozier expects some challenges.

"It hurts a lot of people that have children, that need to travel or are going to have to travel now to Pryor. It's going to be hard on everybody," he said.

OESC representatives said filing claims has changed over the years; now 50 percent of the people who use the Workforce access help online - Reed said online won't help him.

"I have to bring in my DD-214 and military paperwork, and a lot of that stuff you can't do online," he said.

DeLozier said he is working to get a satellite office up and running in the meantime. He said he's also working on a plan to get a new workforce center location open.