Dell among top business news for 2004

[mranderson]

Dell scored second place for the top business new story for 2004. Had it not been for the gasoline price gouging earlier this year, the Dell announcement would have been the top story.

Reports in the press still say 3,000 employees at the peak, however, we are hearing as many as 5,000.

[Midtowner]

Anderson, perhaps you can answer this, what is the average salary they are paying up there?

My worry is that Oklahoma City is getting jobs, but the wrong types of jobs. I and many in this city are concerned that we're getting jobs in the city, but they're the kinds of jobs that are going to strain the budget as the city/state have to pay for entitlements to lowly paid workers and things of that nature. It's a real concern.

[metro]

Midtowner, this situation was addressed in a similar post in case you were wondering. I agree, while they are jobs, they are not "high-tech" they are customer care jobs for a "high-tech" firm. Oh well, I guess it is filling a void of our manufacturing job losses

[Patrick]

I agree metro....it's better than no jobs! Had Dell not chosen OKC for their call center, that would just be 3,000-5,000 fewer jobs. IN our local economy the pay isn't that bad for the job. A couple can earn a prettty decent living if both are customer service reps.
Obviously we need to try to lure in bigger and better jobs. I think those will come. Back when Corning chose our city for a manufacturing facility, I think that showed the potential our city has. Too bad the economy went sour at the wrong time, and construction on the Corning plant stopped.

[metro]

They had an article a week or so ago in the Oklahoman about the old Corning site, its currently being finalized with some foam manufacturer. Tannenbaum is behind it I think. Supposively there will be alot of development over there this coming year