i2E received an email earlier this week from a former colleague who lives in the Midwest that simply said “congratulations.”
The email contained a link to the latest Business Journals On Number Economic Index of the nation’s 102 largest metropolitan areas.
Oklahoma City was ranked No. 1 in the monthly rankings. Word gets around.
We’ve been there before as the No. 1 ranked city, but were briefly passed in December by Austin, Texas.
Here’s what the On Numbers Index article said about Oklahoma City:
- It’s among just four markets that have unemployment rates of 4.5 percent or lower.
- The number of private-sector jobs in Oklahoma City has grown by 3.5 percent in the past half-decade. That’s the fourth-biggest increase in America.
- Local retail employment has soared by a nation-leading 7.2 percent over the same span.
- Home values have increased in just 12 of 102 markets since 2007. That includes Oklahoma City’s gain of 2.4 percent.
Click here to read the entire article.
Meanwhile, I saw another measure of economic health today in the 2012 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index for the nation’s 200 largest metropolitan areas.
In that index for the entire year, Oklahoma City ranked No. 32, which is actually a leap from No. 50 in 2011. That puts us in the top 84 percent of the top 200 American metro areas.
The Milken website says the index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. Tulsa was ranked No. 118 for 2012, down from No. 86 a year ago.
Click here to see the Milken Institute rankings (thanks to the Innovation Daily blog).
Draw your own conclusions to what this means and how we got here. What I take from it all is that we’re still enjoying the benefits of the first MAPs initiative that Oklahoma City voters passed two decades ago.
