Oklahoma City Economic Reports

[chuck5815]

I don't buy the idea that OKC is more economically diversified than Dallas or L.A.

[gopokes88]

I don't buy the idea that OKC is more economically diversified than Dallas or L.A.

I don't buy Dallas either. Dallas is home to two massive airlines (AA and SW), Exxon Mobil, AT&T, Toyota, Texas Instruments, Dean Foods, Frito Lay, and a bunch others. It might be the most diverse economy in the country when considering how many different industries it touches.

I can maybe see LA a little bit. Real estate, entertainment, tourism, and the port fuels LA. But wouldn't think its more diverse than OKC.

[josh]

It’s a nerdwallet ranking. I would never take a nerdwallet list seriously. To me, they’re like buzzfeed, their stuff is very clickbaity. Every one of their lists or rankings have insanely suspect methodologies or just down right stupid methodologies that as I said, are used for click bait.

No offense, but OKC does not have a more diversities economy than LA, Dallas or Houston. That alone should make you suspect of nerdwallet and this particular list.

[josh]

I can maybe see LA a little bit. Real estate, entertainment, tourism, and the port fuels LA. But wouldn't think its more diverse than OKC.

I can’t tell if you’re joking here. LA is way more than four things you just listed. LA has industry sectors that the state of OK doesn’t even have.

LA is very much more diversird than OKC.

Just to put LA’s economy in perspective, LA metro has a GDP of nearly 800 billion. The state of Oklahoma has a GDP of 140 billion.

[gopokes88]

I can’t tell if you’re joking here. LA is way more than four things you just listed. LA has industry sectors that the state of OK doesn’t even have.

LA is very much more diversird than OKC.

Just to put LA’s economy in perspective, LA metro has a GDP of nearly 800 billion. The state of Oklahoma has a GDP of 140 billion.

Don’t confuse diversity with size.

[jonny d]

Let's not let great be the enemy of good. OKC is improving. Are they top-notch, no. But are they in a better place than they were 5 years ago, very much so! That should be taken as a very positive sign.

[josh]

Don’t confuse diversity with size.

I’m not.

But, seriously, how are people in this thread so unaware or unfamiliar with Los Angeles?

[Plutonic Panda]

I’m not.

But, seriously, how are people in this thread so unaware or unfamiliar with Los Angeles?

I live in LA and am very aware of it. I don't know how they came up with their findings but it is rather suspect. I could see OKC being more diverse than Dallas but not LA. I'd think that has to do with ratios relative to size, but I don't know much about the economy, tbh.

[Teo9969]

A $100B economy with 25 industries but $80B being split relatively evenly between 15 industries is more diverse than an $1,000B economy with 50 industries but $800B being split relatively evenly between only 5 industries.

# of industries does not = diversity.
# of dollars in multiple industries does not necessarily = diversity.

Diversity also doesn't equate to a strong or good economy. It's a descriptor and if the data backs up that that descriptor is true, then it's true.

Ultimately, OKC has nothing remotely close to Hollywood which has complete and total advantage over the entire world in its market. You would take that every day over anything Oklahoma has - that is, as long as that advantage can be maintained. If people grew bored of Hollywood and its economic production was cut by 80% it's probably not an understatement to say that LA's economy would experience an incredible fall from grace.

[Plutonic Panda]

LA has so much it's just so hard for me to imagine OKC is more diverse. LA has a huge space field, high tech field, near ivy-league universities, one of the largest ports in the world, one of the largest tourism industries in the world, insane recreational scene, massive marijuana industry, biggest entertainment and music industry in world, tons of HQ's, tons of start ups, how can OKC compare to that? Dallas has a lot but it's more believable that OKC is more diverse than Dallas though I still don't buy that. I'm not even sold on OKC being more diverse than Houston because of the massive health and space field Houston has.

BTW, Hollywood is experiencing some major issues that will unfold and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. For my sake, I hope Hollywood makes it through.

[josh]

Again, never take nerdwallet to heart. I’ve seen rankings and lists that just made zero sense, absolutely zero sense. It’s a click bait site that I no longer take serious.

[RodH]

The study was published by WalletHub and not nerdwallet. you can go to there website and find the study on city economic diversity. The methodology is posted and you can see the whole list and the scores. OKC is ranked 7 and LA is ranked 8 among large cities with populations over 300,000.

[josh]

The study was published by WalletHub and not nerdwallet. you can go to there website and find the study on city economic diversity. The methodology is posted and you can see the whole list and the scores. OKC is ranked 7 and LA is ranked 8 among large cities with populations over 300,000.

WalletHub and NerdWallet are very interchangeable. So much so, I often get them confused as I did now.

[josh]

The study was published by WalletHub and not nerdwallet. you can go to there website and find the study on city economic diversity. The methodology is posted and you can see the whole list and the scores. OKC is ranked 7 and LA is ranked 8 among large cities with populations over 300,000.

I was actually able to find it. I was about to read their methodology for their ranking until I saw the cities ranked 4th and 5th.

4th was Corpus Christi. 5th was El Paso.

Once I saw that, I knew that wasn’t a true list but another nonsenseical list by WalletHub/nerdwallet.

If you honestly believe Corpus Christi and El Paso are the two most diverse economic cities in Texas let alone more diverse than LA or Chicago or Seattle or Phoenix or Denver or Nashville or Charlotte. Well, I have a bridge in the Antarctic I’d love to sell you.

Corpus and El Paso do not have very diverse economies. Like, not in the least. I won’t go in-depth but seriously, I laughed and said wtf when I saw that.

Again, do not take those rankings as gospel. It’s wonderful fodder for civic people who use it as a means to booster their city but it’s smoke and mirrors.

Here is the link to the WalletHub list. Scroll down a bit to see the Large City list.

[Plutonic Panda]

Lawton, OK the 2nd most diversified city in the U.S.!? Yeah that list is complete BS.

[d-usa]

Reading through the methodology, it doesn't seem to be that unreasonable.

I think people are just hung up on size and amount of business over how diversified the economic sector of each city actually is. And the methodology is counting the industries and sectors where people work, not how much money each individual business is making.

So having a mix of employees working in different specific industries, having a mix of employees working for the private market, government, or self employed, and having a mix of employees work in areas such as service, management, etc is what made these ratings, not "this city has more businesses making more money" or anything like that. By using employees, having a lower unemployment rate might end up helping us as well. Not having any huge giant businesses absolutely domineering our economy is also helpful.

The findings seem like they could be legit based on the methodology, so there is no reason to dismiss the list just because you don't like the website publishing it. There can always be a discussion regarding the usefulness of using the employee numbers to measure diversity rather than income or profits or any other number of measures. But that doesn't change the findings using this particular methodology.

[josh]

Reading through the methodology, it doesn't seem to be that unreasonable.

I think people are just hung up on size and amount of business over how diversified the economic sector of each city actually is. And the methodology is counting the industries and sectors where people work, not how much money each individual business is making.

So having a mix of employees working in different specific industries, having a mix of employees working for the private market, government, or self employed, and having a mix of employees work in areas such as service, management, etc is what made these ratings, not "this city has more businesses making more money" or anything like that. By using employees, having a lower unemployment rate might end up helping us as well. Not having any huge giant businesses absolutely domineering our economy is also helpful.

The findings seem like they could be legit based on the methodology, so there is no reason to dismiss the list just because you don't like the website publishing it. There can always be a discussion regarding the usefulness of using the employee numbers to measure diversity rather than income or profits or any other number of measures. But that doesn't change the findings using this particular methodology.

Calling out the ranking and calling their methodology shoddy has nothing to do with the size of the cities or the amount of money people make or industries make.

The fact that that ranking has Corpus and El Paso as the two most diversified economies in Texas is all the proof I need to call out their methodology. No legit and sensible methodology would place those two cities in the top ten most diversied economies in the country. Sorry?m, I know those two places well. I know their economies well.

Again, this list/ranking is great is you take it at face value and want to use it for civic pride, aside from that it’s a joke, imo.

[T. Jamison]

Oklahoma Economic Report

[On April 9, Moody’s issued the following Issuer Comment: Oklahoma overcomes political gridlock and passes revenue bill for first time in decades, a credit positive

[RodH]

Calling out the ranking and calling their methodology shoddy has nothing to do with the size of the cities or the amount of money people make or industries make.

The fact that that ranking has Corpus and El Paso as the two most diversified economies in Texas is all the proof I need to call out their methodology. No legit and sensible methodology would place those two cities in the top ten most diversied economies in the country. Sorry?m, I know those two places well. I know their economies well.

Again, this list/ranking is great is you take it at face value and want to use it for civic pride, aside from that it’s a joke, imo.

What methodology do you use to quantify the economic diversity of cities? Where do the researchers go wrong in their methodology that causes the results to be disagreeable to you? What are the characteristics of the Corpus and El Paso economies that in your opinion make them less diverse than other Texas cities? I am not trying to be argumentative, just curious.

[gopokes88]

I’m not.

But, seriously, how are people in this thread so unaware or unfamiliar with Los Angeles?

No offense but that's exactly what you did. You argued becasue LA's pie is 800 billion in GDP and all of Oklahoma's is 140, LA is therefore more diverse.
But diversity has nothing to do with the size of the pie, the size of the pie doesn't matter, the # of slices the pie is cut into does.

New York Cities pie is massive but finance and wall street is a damn big slice of it. Same with San Francisco and tech. Not that either of those cities aren't more diverse, I don't know, but you have to shift your thinking away from just looking at the size.

[josh]

No offense but that's exactly what you did. You argued becasue LA's pie is 800 billion in GDP and all of Oklahoma's is 140, LA is therefore more diverse.
But diversity has nothing to do with the size of the pie, the size of the pie doesn't matter, the # of slices the pie is cut into does.

New York Cities pie is massive but finance and wall street is a damn big slice of it. Same with San Francisco and tech. Not that either of those cities aren't more diverse, I don't know, but you have to shift your thinking away from just looking at the size.

A metro area with 800 billion gdp isn’t going to have a 800 billion gdp from two slices of a pie or three slices. It’s gonna have a big pie with a lot of slices. Some slices bigger than others, but a lot of slices none the less.

That was my indirect point without outright stating it.

[Plutonic Panda]

What methodology do you use to quantify the economic diversity of cities? Where do the researchers go wrong in their methodology that causes the results to be disagreeable to you? What are the characteristics of the Corpus and El Paso economies that in your opinion make them less diverse than other Texas cities? I am not trying to be argumentative, just curious.

What methodology are you using to determine El Paso and Chorpus Christi are more diverse than Dallas? Do you realize how absurd that sounds?

[T. Jamison]

Nm

[RodH]

What methodology are you using to determine El Paso and Chorpus Christi are more diverse than Dallas? Do you realize how absurd that sounds?

TThe seven university professors who conducted the research stated the methodology that they used to get the results that they got. If you dismiss their results it is not absurd to ask how you arrived at a different result.

[d-usa]

A metro area with 800 billion gdp isn’t going to have a 800 billion gdp from two slices of a pie or three slices. It’s gonna have a big pie with a lot of slices. Some slices bigger than others, but a lot of slices none the less.

That was my indirect point without outright stating it.

And a smaller pie with more slices will have more slices.

The number of the economic value has zero to do with how diversified that economy is.
They measured diversity by how diverse the employment sector is, not by profits.