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Oklahoma City’s Hidden Hiring Boom · The 405 Payroll

• 0:13
  If you were looking at job boards in Greater Oklahoma City back in December 2025,
• 0:19
  you might have thought the local economy had completely stalled out.
• 0:23
  Public online job postings showed zero percent year over year growth.
• 0:28
  Zero.
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  Meanwhile, across the rest of the country, postings were up eight percent.
• 0:34
  So, on paper, it looked like a total freeze, right?
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  But then you pull up the actual economic numbers from that exact same period,
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  and the story completely flips on you.
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  Unemployment in the region was averaging three point two percent,
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  and at one point in the spring it dropped all the way down to two point four
• 0:53
  percent.
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  Net nonfarm employment actually grew by six thousand six hundred jobs across the
• 0:59
  year.
• 1:01
  So what is happening here?
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  Why are the public job boards completely flat while the actual labor market is so
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  tight it is practically humming?
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  Well, it turns out employers in OKC have largely abandoned posting on public boards
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  because, frankly, when unemployment is sitting under three or four percent,
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  the people you want to hire aren't scrolling through general job sites at midnight.
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  They already have jobs.
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  So companies are shifting their budget straight into direct recruitment,
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  headhunting, and internal networking instead of throwing money at public job ads
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  that just sit there.
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  And look at the quality of the jobs being created.
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  The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber backed one hundred and thirteen economic
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  development deals that generated three thousand four hundred and six new jobs.
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  And those jobs didn't just meet the baseline.
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  They averaged an annual salary of sixty thousand seven hundred dollars.
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  That is a massive wage floor for a region with this cost of living.
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  You see physical proof of this confidence all over town, too.
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  Non residential construction activity jumped twelve percent as companies built out
• 2:12
  new corporate footprint.
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  Take PwC, for instance.
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  Under Managing Partner Nate Rice, they set up a major move into a brand new Midtown
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  office buildout slated for August 2026.
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  Companies are not retreating.
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  They are building real estate and paying sixty thousand seven hundred dollars on
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  average to capture talent directly.
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  Now, if you look at the pipeline coming down the track, the sheer scale of interest
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  is wild.
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  One hundred and twenty one companies were actively considering relocation or
• 2:46
  expansion in the region as of December 2025.
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  Let me repeat that, because it is the central engine here.
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  Exactly one hundred and twenty one companies were actively considering relocation or
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  expansion in the region as of December 2025.
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  And seventy percent of those active prospects are in advanced manufacturing.
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  They want central United States distribution access, lower operating costs,
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  and reliable logistics networks.
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  But here is where the tension comes in.
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  For 2026, Chamber projections show a much more cautious growth pace of point six
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  percent, which translates to about four thousand five hundred net new jobs.
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  That is a deliberate slowdown in velocity compared to previous years.
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  The focus is shifting toward heavy infrastructure, capital investments,
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  and MAPS 4 projects.
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  And that brings us to the single biggest test facing the region right now.
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  It is what I call the talent bottleneck.
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  If you land a massive advanced manufacturing facility or an aerospace expansion,
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  but you don't have the skilled technicians to staff the floor,
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  those multi billion dollar investments sit underutilized.
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  That is precisely why the local business community launched Forward OKC VII,
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  making education and workforce pipeline alignment their primary flagship focus.
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  They have to train local workers fast enough to keep pace with these high tech
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  manufacturing requirements.
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  If they pull it off, Oklahoma City locks in a high wage, resilient economy for the
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  next decade.
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  If they fall short, the pipeline stalls out.
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  That is the real dynamic to watch as 2026 unfolds.
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  Catch you next time.