In the past, Oklahoma City’s economy has relied heavily upon the oil industry.  The city itself was built upon the early 1900’s successes of oil exploration and the natural resources industry.  Currently, Oklahoma City is home to a wide array of industries including agricultural processing centers, government sector, and a vast number of education and education related sectors.  Tinker Air Force Base is located nearby, giving Oklahoma City a steady stream of economic stimulus as the defense department and government side of the economy grow and thrive.  The FAA also has their headquarters in Oklahoma City.  The city has shown much resilience after the tragic bombings in April 1995.  A handful of museums and memorials have sprouted up to honor those who were injured and killed in the blast.

The city has the lowest unemployment rate of any US city with a population of one million people or more.  It’s consistently been able to weather the economic storm with little damage coming to its economy.  One of the keys to this ability to remain out of the path of the global economic slowdown is Oklahoma City’s economic diversity.  But the unemployment numbers may be more than meets the eye.  This past month more than 600,000 people gave up looking for work in the US, and were therefore no longer counted in the unemployment figures.  This is a sneaky way of taking people out of the official unemployment pool when they are the ones who are truly unemployed. 

The surrounding counties are likely far better indicators of the true unemployment rate than the Oklahoma City metro area is.  They all come in at around 11%-12% unemployment, which is slightly higher than the national average, but lower than many other US cities struggling with the loss of some of their more important sectors.  Employment is still of great concern for the average citizen of Oklahoma, as it has been in many of the past recessions.  Oklahoma will likely lag behind the rest of the US when it comes to recovering from the recession fully, except for possibly Oklahoma City, which will likely do better than the surrounding counties and cities.

Underemployed workers and those no longer able to collect government unemployment benefits are also no longer counted in the official unemployment tally either.  Another factor that may have artificially deflated the city’s unemployment rate is the fact that the data is not adjusted for seasonal workers.  Many of those people who were employed over the summer, during the peak tourist and retail months are no longer employed or can still only find part time work.

Oklahoma City is home to a relatively healthy business and financial sector.  The strongest sectors for the city in recent months have been the government and education sectors, both adding jobs while many other sectors slowly shed jobs.  These two sectors have typically added jobs just about everywhere, reflecting the constant demand for education and the growing US government presence in many cities and states.  The fact that Oklahoma City lies on some very key rail and trucking lines has helped its cause a little, but the transportation sector has taken some serious hits over the past 24 months.