A Suspect Report on OKC Employment Trends

[ljbab728]

Study shows 'job sprawl' in Oklahoma City, drop in downtown employment | News OK

Humphreys suspects the data falls into a timeline that doesn't represent the true trend of changes in Oklahoma City's urban core. He noted that the city's Metropolitan Area Projects didn't get fully underway until the late 1990s, and the impact of such changes were staggered over the next several years.

The only major job loss he could recall were the few hundred jobs lost when Kerr-McGee was acquired in 2006 by Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum.

“This study does a good job at catching something that is happening at a national level,” Humphreys said. “But it doesn't appreciate the nuances of what is happening in Oklahoma City today. It shows us losing 6,000 jobs within three miles of downtown. You can ask brokers — there is no way we've lost 6,000. But keep in mind the last three years have been really good for downtown.”

The employment bounce includes expansion of the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Devon Energy and SandRidge Energy, and the relocation of Continental Resources from Enid. Smaller firms ranging from BlueKnight Energy and Saxum, both with about 30 employees, with many smaller creative and energy firms, also have relocated downtown in the past few years.

[Just the facts]

I wonder if they counted all of the Kerr McGee and Tronix jobs as being located in downtown OKC. There is simply no way 6,000 net jobs have been lost around downtown OKC between 2000 and 2010.

[LakeEffect]

It's all Census data, so I don't get it. Also a suspect report because it excludes almost ALL government jobs. Hard to make a real report without including those. Since I moved to OKC in 2005, there have been a few factory closings that really reduced numbers outside of downtown, but other than the people in the Kerr McGee tower, I can't recall a drastic reduction in downtown jobs, only increases.

[Just the facts]

It's all Census data, so I don't get it. Also a suspect report because it excludes almost ALL government jobs. Hard to make a real report without including those.

Especially since the Capitol and OU Medical are all in the scope area and are government jobs.

[soonerguru]

This is a bogus report. The author / researcher should be ashamed.

[catch22]

This is a bogus report. The author / researcher should be ashamed.

+1

[ljbab728]

Steve agrees with my assessment in his latest chat.

Yes. I've read the report. It's based on census data. I'm going to be blunt - I do not believe, at all, that downtown lost 6,000 jobs between 2000 and 2010. Kerr-McGee was the only big loss for downtown, and they only employed a few hundred people. I'm not a big fan of rankings, national studies, for this very reason. It's very difficult for me to do a story on that report when in my heart I know there's something wrong with that study. I know downtown Oklahoma City, I've covered it this entire time. We DID NOT lose 6,000 jobs downtown.