An assessment for the Tulsa Regional Chamber is showing some potential challenges for Tulsa’s economic future.
The area’s population has grown 3.3% over the last five years, but mostly from an uptick in births. Tulsa Regional Chamber Vice President of Economic Development Bill Murphy said the problem is more people are leaving Tulsa than are staying.
"Our top destinations for our residents who are leaving our community are the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, Oklahoma City, Houston and Denver," Murphy said. "Our top locations that we’re drawing people from are primarily rural Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; and Stillwater, interestingly enough."
Murphy said Tulsa tends to lose people with more education and gain people with less, making it harder to land high-tech jobs.
Education is another area Tulsa needs to work on. Just 26.6% of adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and younger workers are not more educated than those nearing retirement.
Murphy said one bright spot, however, is a high rate of people finishing certificate programs: around 550 per 100,000.
"It will always be something that we’ll be probably a top-10 leader in the country. We need to take that same energy and focus and now apply that to getting folks their degrees, and bachelor’s degree and higher," Murphy said.
Murphy said area leaders must figure out how to get more of the roughly 75 percent of four-year-olds in pre-K to earn degrees when they grow up.
"People could interpret this as some doom and gloom, if you will, but, really, it is those communities that take the time to really understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, that ultimately prove to be helpful in long-term strategic planning," Murphy said about the assessment.
Murphy said Tulsa has momentum to build on with new amenities to lure new residents and the emphasis on early education. The assessment will be used to develop the chamber’s next five-year plan.
