The Oklahoma Department of Commerce has released numbers relating to business announcements for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) which ran July 1 through Sept. 30. During this time, Commerce recorded 23 business announcements, a 28% increase over the same time period the previous year. A business announcement represents a decision by a company to add jobs and/or investment to the state. Jobs, salary and investment numbers are projected by the individual companies and reported by Commerce.The following numbers were reported and represent Commerce-assisted projects:
- Business Announcements: 23
- Projected New Direct Jobs: 3,327
- Average Salary for New Jobs: $66,949
- Projected New Investment: $923,910,000
- Oklahoma Regions with Announcements: 5 of 6
“The business case for Oklahoma is strong and we are seeing that with the increase in interest and announcements,” said Deby Snodgrass, Secretary of Commerce and Tourism. “Our team is hard at work to bring more jobs and investment to Oklahoma and to further diversify our economy. We are also seeing increased interest from global companies and investors. In FY 2018, just under 16% of Commerce-assisted business announcements were foreign direct investment. Of our current open projects, 27% are FDI.”
The announcements also represent a diversity of industries in the state:
- Aerospace & Defense: 13%
- Agriculture & Bioscience: 17.4%
- Energy: 8.7%
- Information & Financial Services: 26.1%
- Transportation & Distribution: 4.3%
- Other: 30.4%
In the past 10 years, the work done by Commerce has resulted in 592 business announcements in 97 different Oklahoma communities, totaling nearly 70,000 new jobs and more than $16.8 billion in new investment.
