Unemployment Resource
Phone: (405) 525-1500
File a claim
Unemployment insurance is a program of social insurance meant to ease the economic burden of unemployment by providing a temporary source of income for individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own.
Unemployment is an insurance paid by your employer in the form of Unemployment Taxes.
The benefit year is a period of 52 consecutive weeks in which all your weekly claims must be filed. It begins on the Sunday of the week in which your application is filed. Your claim is good for one year. The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of your benefit year.
To qualify for benefits, you must be unemployed at the time of filing or working less than full-time and earning wages less than your weekly benefit amount. You must have a minimum of $1500 in covered wages in your base period and your total base period wages must be 11/2 times your high quarter wages. If you are not a citizen, you must present evidence to establish you were lawfully admitted to the United States during the period of your employment.
The law establishes the maximum amount you may draw during your benefit year. This amount depends on the conditional factor of the trust fund.
You may apply for unemployment insurance benefits as soon as you become unemployed. Your application cannot be made retroactive beyond the week in which it is filed.
Go to the nearest Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Claims Center and tell the Customer Service Representative that you are unemployed and wish to apply for benefits.
If you live in the metropolitan calling area of Oklahoma City or Tulsa, you do not report to a Claims Center you apply for unemployment by telephone. You may call to establish a claim between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. In the Oklahoma City area call (405) 525-1500, TDD (405) 522-8597 in the Tulsa calling area (918) 437-1855.
When filing your initial claim, you will need your Social Security card, driver's license, or other items which will identify you. Have the name and address and dates of work for the last employer for whom you worked.
If you are a veteran who separated from the armed forces in the past 18 months, take your DD-214. If you were a federal civilian employee in the same period of time, have your SF-8 or SF-50. If you had out-of-state employment in the past 18 months, bring the name(s) and address(es) of these employer(s) available.
You may be disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits if you:
- were discharged or fired for misconduct
- voluntarily quit without good cause
- are not able and available for work
- are not a U. S. citizen and not authorized to work
- have limited the wages, hours, days, or areas of a job you would accept
- do not report for or satisfactorily participate in reemployment services
- are self employed
- are involved in a strike
- are not looking for work
- refuse suitable work
Claims are filed on a calendar-week basis, Sunday through Saturday date. Weekly claims must be filed within 14 days of the week ending date for the week to be considered timely. OESC has a Teleclaim system which allows you to file each week by telephone. The office where you file your claim will provide you a booklet on how to use the Teleclaim system.
Claims for individuals who worked in Oklahoma during the base period who now live out of state file their claims for Unemployment by telephone. You may call 1-800-317-3797 to establish a claim between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Please refer any other questions you may have to the Unemployment Claims Center.
Source: Oklahoma Employment Security Commission
