OKC MAPS PROJECTS – 25 YEARS
Downtown Study Area Economic Change Along with growth in population and housing, another key spillover effect anticipated from MAPS is growth in the base of business establishments and employment downtown. Many of the city’s largest employers have a significant presence downtown and attract workers from all regions of the metropolitan area. This section of the report examines recent changes in the size and composition of the local economy in the downtown study area. Much like the population growth, the results suggest a sharp increase in employment and business activity in the downtown study area since approximately 2009. Activity in the study area has also far outpaced the county, metro area and state in the period. Data Sources . The datasets used in this section are tabulated primarily from a place of work perspective. For employment, this approach examines jobs located in the study area regardless of where the worker lives. Additional focus is placed on workers living in the study area as it relates to the share who work both inside and outside the study area. A related economic development concern is the degree to which new jobs in the downtown area are being filled by workers who live in Oklahoma County versus those commuting from outside the city and county. The primary dataset used to evaluate the downtown economy is the Census Bureau’s Local Employer- Household Dynamics (LEHD) database. 41 The LEHD program provides data on both employees and employers by combining several federal, state, and Census Bureau datasets at the regional level. Employment, earnings, and job flows are available by either place of work or place of residence. Employment can be partitioned by industry and by demographic characteristics of workers. The most recently available year of data is 2015, however extended historical series extending back to 2002 are available for most regions, including both Census tracts and ZIP codes in the downtown study area. LEHD data is based largely on the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data program which is derived from state Unemployment Insurance (UI) administrative data. Data coverage under LEHD includes employees covered by state UI programs and some federal employees but excludes military, self-employed, and non-covered federal employees. Overall coverage remains quite high, with approximately 95% of all private employment covered. Data are also derived from the Census Bureau’s ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP) database. This dataset provides an extensive historical series stretching back to 1994 and provides an alternative view of the long-run trend in employment during the MAPS era. More importantly, it provides data on the number of business establishments and the amount of payroll received by employees in the area. As its name implies, data is available at the ZIP code level. Downtown Employment Trend Panel A of Figure 30 illustrates the trend in employment by place of work in the downtown study area in the 2002 to 2015 period. More than 61,100 jobs were reported across the 14 Census tracts in the study area in 2015, the most recent year of data available. Again, this measure includes all jobs located in the downtown study area, regardless of where workers live. Downtown Job Growth . Much like accelerating population growth, a distinct acceleration in downtown job growth has taken place since approximately 2009. More than 9,000 jobs were added in the study area since 2009, a 17.3% gain. This follows an extended period of relatively flat and volatile job growth
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