Oklahoma City and Tulsa have had higher growth in personal incomes than the average of the rest of the nation for the last three years.
By Justin Juozapavicius
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Fueled by a robust energy industry, personal income for the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas continued to outpace the nation in 2007, according to estimates released Thursday from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The Lawton area, whose community includes the Ft. Sill U.S. Army base, came in slightly under the national average, but still posted a strong showing, a state economist said.
Nationally, personal income — income received by all persons from all sources — grew 6.2 percent in 2007, down from 6.8 percent in 2006.
The bureau surveyed 363 metropolitan areas for its report and found that in more than half of them — 208 — personal income growth slowed. In 2006, personal income increased in 252 of those areas.
In the Oklahoma City area, personal income totaled more than $44 billion in 2007, a growth of 6.4 percent. Tulsa posted a personal income of $36.4 billion for a 6.8 percent increase.
Both cities were ranked in the top 100 based on those figures — Tulsa in 55th and Oklahoma City in 92nd. Lawton’s rank was 207.
Growth in Oklahoma City and Tulsa “is a continuation of a trend that’s been under way for years,” said Mark Snead, an economist at Oklahoma State University.
“This is just another good year on top of 2005 and 2006,” he said. “2008 is basically looking like a repeat of ‘07, ‘06 and ‘05.”
Lawton posted personal income of nearly $3.7 billion, a 5.6 percent increase. Despite it being below the national average, Snead said the city still posted a strong showing in 2007, given that it had to prepare for the relocation of an artillery school from Fort Bliss, Texas.
Snead also cautioned that the bureau has been revising its income numbers upward the past two years, and that could continue this year for the areas.
In terms of per-capita personal income, the nation posted a 5.2 percent growth rate, increasing from $36,714 in 2006 to $38,632 in 2007.
Per capita income in the state’s surveyed metropolitan areas also grew.
In Lawton, per capita personal income went from $31,065 to $32,380, or 4.2 percent. In Tulsa, it went from $38,219 to $40,227, or 5.3 percent. And in Oklahoma City, per-capita personal income went from $35,637 to $37,385, or 4.9 percent.
Oklahoma’s strong energy industry continued to tell the story. In June, the bureau found that continued expansion of the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma helped personal income grow by nearly 1 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
With personal income of $128.5 billion in the first quarter, the state ranked roughly in the middle of the country at 28th, the June report found.
The updated 2008 Oklahoma Economic Outlook report, released Wednesday and authored by Snead, found that Oklahoma added 22,500 jobs last year as the energy sector fueled an employment growth rate of 1.4 percent, sixth highest in the nation.
Nationally, the BEA found personal income grew fastest in the areas of Gulfport, Miss., New Orleans and Pascagoula, Miss., which were boosted by federal money to help rebuild homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The slowest-growing were found in the Great Lakes region, where personal income growth in most of those areas was one-half the national pace or less, according to the bureau.
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