Economy
The economy of Oklahoma City, once a regional power center of government and energy exploration, has diversified to include the sectors of information technology, services, health services and administration. The city has two Fortune 500 companies: Devon Energy Corporation and Chesapeake Energy Corporation, several others that are in the Fortune 1000 and a number of large privately owned companies. Oklahoma City is home to the corporate headquarters of Sonic Drive-In, whose office building and corporate restaurant is located in Bricktown. Devon Energy revealed plans in August 2008 for a new 850-foot (260 m) tall, 1,900,000-square-foot (180,000 m2) headquarters building in downtown Oklahoma City. The new skyscraper is currently under construction and is expected to be complete in 2012 and open in 2013.Continental Resources will move more than 250 employees from Enid to its new headquarters in downtown Oklahoma City in 2012.
Other large employers in Oklahoma City include McKesson Corp, Tinker Air Force Base, the federal government, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Central Oklahoma, American Fidelity, AT&T, AAA, Bank of America, Bank of Oklahoma, The Boeing Company, Braum's, Dell, The Hertz Corporation, Farmer's Insurance, Integris Health, The Hartford, JP Morgan Chase, Mercy Heath System, Sprint/Nextel, St. Anthony Health System, Williams-Sonoma, Xerox, United Parcel Service, Cox, and the state of Oklahoma. Six Flags at one point was headquartered in Oklahoma City but relocated to New York City on January 27, 2006.
According to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the metropolitan area's economic output grew by 33 percent between 2001 and 2005 due chiefly to economic diversification. Its gross metropolitan product was $43.1 billion in 2005 and grew to $61.1 billion in 2009.
In 2008, Forbes magazine named Oklahoma City the most "recession proof city in America". The magazine reported that the city had falling unemployment, one of the strongest housing markets in the country and solid growth in energy, agriculture and manufacturing. However, during the 1980s, Oklahoma City had one of the worst job and housing markets due to the bankruptcy of Penn Square Bank in 1982 and then the post-1985 crash in oil prices.
Read more about this topic: Oklahoma City
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
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