Largest Area Employers

[Pete]

Source: OKC Chamber of Commerce
April 2017

Company Name	HQ	# Employees	Sector
State of Oklahoma		45,600	Government
Tinker Air Force Base		24,000	Military
University of Oklahoma - Norman		12,700	Higher Education
FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center		7,000	Aerospace
INTEGRIS Health	✓	6,000	Health Care
Hobby Lobby Stores Inc	✓	5,100	Wholesale & Retail
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center		5,000	Higher Education
City of Oklahoma City		4,700	Government
Mercy Hospital	✓	4,500	Health Care
OGE Energy Corp	✓	3,400	Utility
OU Medical Center		3,200	Health Care
SSM Health Care of Oklahoma, Inc.	✓	3,000	Health Care
University of Central Oklahoma		3,000	Higher Education
Norman Regional Hospital		2,950	Health Care
AT&T		2,700	Telecommunications
The Boeing Company		2,600	Aerospace
Devon Energy Corp	✓	2,500	Oil & Gas
Chesapeake Energy Corp	✓	2,500	Oil & Gas
Sonic Corp	✓	2,460	Wholesale & Retail
Oklahoma City Community College		2,100	Higher Education
Dell		1,800	Sales & Business Services
UPS		1,800	Transportation
Hertz Corporation		1,700	Rental Services
Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores	✓	1,700	Retail
American Fidelity	✓	1,650	Finance/Insurance
Cox Communications		1,400	Telecommunications
Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company		1,300	Beverage Distribution
Farmers Insurance Group		1,300	Customer Service
Midfirst Bank	✓	1,150	Finance
Bank of Oklahoma		1,100	Finance
Dolese Bros. Co.	✓	1,100	Manufacturing
Continental Resources	✓	1,000	Oil & Gas
Deaconess Hospital	✓	1,000	Health Care
Rose State College		1,000	Higher Education

[TAlan CB]

Does the State of Oklahoma employment numbers mean OKC metro - or the entire state? Honestly, I don't believe it employs nearly as many as Tinker in the OKC metro.

[Pete]

Does the State of Oklahoma employment numbers mean OKC metro - or the entire state? Honestly, I don't believe it employs nearly as many as Tinker in the OKC metro.

These numbers are just for the OKC area.

[Dubya61]

If Walmart and WM Neighborhood Markets has 30 stores in the OKC area, how do they avoid being on this list? What is the average employment footprint of a Walmart, WN Neighborhood Market or Walmart Supercenter?

There was a study done showing Wal-Mart Super Centers, Wal-Marts, and WM Neighborhood Markets dominated the OKC grocery scene in an unprecedented way, fully 40% (!!) in 2010, with Sam's Clubs accounting for almost another 6%. That is nearly HALF the total grocery market.

I can't imagine an MSA of over 1 million with anything close to this.

[catch22]

I bet the employment list goes off of full time employees.

[Pete]

If Walmart and WM Neighborhood Markets has 30 stores in the OKC area, how do they avoid being on this list? What is the average employment footprint of a Walmart, WN Neighborhood Market or Walmart Supercenter?

Great question!

According to W-M, super centers employ 300 and neighborhood markets about 100.

Even if many of those jobs are part-time -- and I'd bet most of them aren't -- seems like they would make this list easily.

[SOONER8693]

Moore Public Schools employs over 2300 people.

[Pete]

Moore Public Schools employs over 2300 people.

Yes, seems strange none of the school districts are shown here.

Could they be included as state employees?

[Spartan]

Yeah there are some irregularities with this list..

[Mr. Cotter]

Yes, seems strange none of the school districts are shown here.

Could they be included as state employees?

That would be my guess. OKCPS employs 2300 according to the ever-accurate Wikipedia. That seems about right though - with 55 elementary schools, averaging 30 full time employees, OKCPS elementary schools on their own would make this list.

[Snowman]

Yes, seems strange none of the school districts are shown here.

Could they be included as state employees?

I would expect them placed in the various city government numbers before the state numbers

[Bellaboo]

I would expect them placed in the various city government numbers before the state numbers

School teachers are considered state employees. State retirement and so on...

[SoonerDave]

I think that Boeing facility way over by Tinker is running something over 1,300-1,400 employees now? And growing, I think?

[Just the facts]

Great question!

According to W-M, super centers employ 300 and neighborhood markets about 100.

Even if many of those jobs are part-time -- and I'd bet most of them aren't -- seems like they would make this list easily.

You have to be careful when discussing walmart employment numbers. The 300 figure is used a lot by Walmart but that is only when they first open the store. After the store has been open people quit and they aren't replaced. A supercenter that has been open for a year only employs about 150 people.

[Pete]

But even if they only employ 150 at the super centers, there are 11 (!) in the metro area, so that's well more than a thousand employees not even counting the neighborhood markets or Sam's Clubs.

[Just the facts]

Maybe Walmart chooses not to report their numbers to whomever the source is for the list. Getting employment numbers can be hard because Walmart (and I am sure other companies) sell their 300 count as the basis for a lot of local incentives around the country. If it was widely spread that the real number was 1/2 that it could cause problems for them.

[Spartan]

Simply put, I don't think it looks good for a major metro to have Walmart as one of its top employers.

Also consider that the majority of Walmart employees are on public assistance because the corporation pays a national average of $8.81/hour (certainly lower in Oklahoma).

It's ugly.

[ThomPaine]

If they're going to include both full and part-time employees, the Oklahoma National Guard has over 10,000 statewide, about half that in the metro. Of that number, somewhere around 1500 or so full- time statewide.

[Mel]

Does the State of Oklahoma employment numbers mean OKC metro - or the entire state? Honestly, I don't believe it employs nearly as many as Tinker in the OKC metro.

Have you ever noticed how many it takes to fill a pothole? 2 doing the work and 3 to supervise.

[ljbab728]

Simply put, I don't think it looks good for a major metro to have Walmart as one of its top employers.

Also consider that the majority of Walmart employees are on public assistance because the corporation pays a national average of $8.81/hour (certainly lower in Oklahoma).

It's ugly.

LOL, Spartan. So are you suggesting that the Walmarts in OKC should start firing people so we can look better?

[Pete]

It could very well be that the Chamber doesn't want to list Wal-Mart and simply leaves them off.

[Pete]

The Chamber just released a new list of largest employers in the MSA.

I grouped them by category, which I think is quite interesting. You could easily move the FAA Monroney Center into the Government / Military category, which would make that category almost 50% of the employees among area employers of over 1,000 personnel.

Also demonstrates that at 3.9% Oil & Gas is a far lower percentage than most assume.

[Snowman]

Did they change the way they group State of Oklahoma and Tinker? I know Tinker has been expanding but that seems a bit too much growth for either of them over the last three years.

[Bellaboo]

Did they change the way they group State of Oklahoma and Tinker? I know Tinker has been expanding but that seems a bit too much growth for either of them over the last three years.

If I read that right, Tinker lost a thousand over the last 3 years ?

[Snowman]

If I read that right, Tinker lost a thousand over the last 3 years ?

I think it has been updated since I posted that, it was showing around a 10x increase for both. I looked back to make sure I did not miss read it, though I guess there could have been a rendering glitch when the page loaded for me then.