Greater OKC Region Aerospace Industry – 2025
43.3%, and its share of labor income rose from 30.2% to 33.3%. Employment share also continued to rise, reaching 26.3% by 2025. These shifts are not signs of public sector weakness, but rather of a more diversified and market-responsive regional industry – one that increasingly reflects national and global trends. 5. Strong and Broad-Based Productivity Gains Output per worker increased by 15.5% between 2020 and 2025, reaching nearly $193,000 across the sector. In the private sector, output per worker jumped 22.6%, rising to more than $317,000. These gains reflect rising capital investment, improved operational efficiency, and greater value added per job – particularly in commercial aerospace and manufacturing roles. 6. A More Competitive and Balanced Aerospace Economy The employment gains of the past five years were nearly evenly split between the public and private sectors, but the quality of growth – higher productivity, faster output growth, and rising wages – was increasingly concentrated in the private sector. The result is a more balanced aerospace ecosystem, where commercial firms complement the region’s longstanding public sector strength. In short, the region’s aerospace sector is evolving into a more competitive and diversified industry, with sustained growth now increasingly driven by the private sector. This compositional shift reflects national trends and creates new opportunities for Oklahoma to position itself as a hub for commercial aerospace innovation, supply chain development, and high-skill job creation. State and regional policy must continue to balance support for legacy public aerospace infrastructure while accelerating investment in private-sector capacity through targeted workforce training, business incentives, and infrastructure planning that reflects the sector’s increasingly dual character. Limited Pandemic Effects The preparation of the 2020 version of the aerospace report coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. aerospace sector was hard-hit as national economic activity was disrupted, especially commercial aviation, as air travel contracted sharply. The expectation in the 2020 report was that the OKC region aerospace sector was well positioned relative to many aerospace hubs to weather the crisis. Two factors – the sector’s high share of public sector activity and contractors working on long -term projects – were believed to provide far more budget stability than private sector activity. The Oklahoma City area was also relatively less dependent upon commercial aviation, the hardest-hit component of the aerospace sector. These factors ultimately played a key role in the region's resilience during the pandemic, allowing it to maintain its long-term growth trajectory with minimal permanent damage. Additionally, data through 2025 shows little indication of a lasting pullback in the industry. Aerospace Employment by County While all ten counties comprising the Greater Oklahoma City region have some aerospace presence, the industry’s core remains highly concentrated in Oklahoma County ( see Figure 5 ). Oklahoma County is home to 60% of the region ’s aerospace employers and approximately 97% of the aerospace jobs and output produced in the region. Most of the region’s large public aerospace -related infrastructure is located within Oklahoma County, including Tinker AFB, the FAA Center, Will Rogers World Airport, and Will Rogers Air National Guard
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