2016 ECONOMIC SUMMARY WITH FORECASTS FOR 2017-2020

The Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) comprises seven counties: Creek, Okmulgee, Osage, Pawnee, Rogers, Tulsa and Wagoner, whose aggregate population is estimated to be 987,179 (25 percent of the population of the state of Oklahoma). The gross product or value of all goods and services produced in the seven-county MSA is estimated to be $52.1 billion (2009 dollars), or 30.7 percent of the Oklahoma economy.
 
Tulsa’s major industries are aerospace, including aerospace manufacturing and aviation; health care; energy; machinery and electrical equipment manufacturing; transportation, distribution and logistics.

Several clusters, or groups of companies within industries that buy or sell to each other in the manufacture of goods for export from the area, have disproportionately large concentrations of employment relative to the U.S. concentrations and are positioned to grow within the Tulsa MSA:

• Aerospace parts manufacturing is 1.5 times more concentrated in the Tulsa MSA than in the U.S.
• Oil and gas production and machinery manufacturing, 13.5 times more concentrated
• Pump and compressor manufacturing, 16.9 times more concentrated
• Tulsa’s concentration of fabricated metal product manufacturing is 2.8 times the U.S. concentration, but its heat-exchanger manufacturing sub-cluster is 54.6 times more concentrated than at the U.S. level.

General qualities that attract new companies to grow these clusters and others to Tulsa are a sound infrastructure, a cost of doing business that is 11 percent below the U.S. average and a cost of living that is eight percent below the U.S. average. The strong concentrations of employment in these Tulsa-area clusters indicate that the Tulsa area clusters are important to their respective industries nationwide and that they absolutely are important locally.

Tulsa’s infrastructure for business includes the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, an inland port that makes bulk shipping to and from coastal ports accessible and economical, and two central networks for broadband interconnect. Plugging Tulsa’s target producing and service sectors into Tulsa’s formidable infrastructure requires a quality workforce, and Tulsa’s workforce is known and paid for its productivity.

In 2016, Tulsa-area employment fell 0.2 percent for the year as low oil prices persisted and oil-and-gas related declines began to negatively affect other sectors of the Tulsa region. After solid growth in employment and gross product in 2015, the first full year of the oil-price slump, low oil prices in 2016 played a major role in the net loss of 1,039 jobs. But from year-end 2015 through year-end 2016, Tulsa lost 3,800 jobs in the good-producing industries of mining, construction and manufacturing.

Beyond lower oil prices, a strong dollar and relatively slow-growing global demand for capital goods combined to constrain growth in Tulsa-area manufacturing. In 2016, Tulsa-area employment declined 0.2 percent, half the decline of the state while U.S. employment grew 1.8 percent. Tulsa real gross product grew 0.9 percent while Oklahoma and the U.S. grew at 1.3 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Despite slower growth due to low oil prices, weak global demand and a strong dollar, the Chamber was able to announce 3,787 jobs in new and expanding industries. Because of Tulsa’s cost of doing business of 11 percent under the U.S. average due to low rent, energy costs and taxes, Tulsa in 2017 will become a prime location for industry prospects looking to relocate or expand at a steady pace.

In 2017, Tulsa’s gross product of goods and services should grow 3.5 percent to $53.9 billion. After declining 0.2 percent in 2015, employment growth in 2017 will grow 1.5 percent as oil prices stabilize and average between $51 and $53 per barrel throughout 2017.

For more data, read the complete 2017 Economic Profile.