Visit OKC is the official destination marketing organization for the Greater OKC region, promoting the city as a top destination for conventions, sports and leisure travel. Through targeted sales and marketing, Visit OKC aims to raise the city’s national profile.
In this month’s Leadership Notes, Chamber President and CEO Christy Gillenwater emphasizes the importance of Oklahoma City’s visitor economy as a powerful catalyst for investment, talent attraction and long-term growth.
Oklahoma City continues to be one of the most affordable places to live in the country, according to new data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). In the second quarter of 2025, OKC ranked first in affordability among all U.S. cities with a population over 500,000. Among all 245 urban areas surveyed, OKC had the sixth lowest cost of living overall.
The Oklahoma City metropolitan area posted a preliminary unemployment rate of 3.0% in July, improving from 3.2% in June. The metro has recorded unemployment below 4% for 48 consecutive months, the longest such stretch in its modern history.
A six-figure salary stretches farther in Oklahoma than in any other state, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, published by GOBankingRates.
As Oklahoma City’s manufacturing sector continues to expand, a new generation of skilled workers is stepping up to power that growth. On July 7, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber celebrated the latest milestone for its workforce development efforts with a special signing event for Oklahoma’s first chapter of the nationally recognized Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (OKC FAME) program.
Oklahoma ranks among the top states with the largest share of residents under 18, according to a recent report by Visual Capitalist. The state ties for fifth nationally, with 23.6% of its population under age 18, based on July 1, 2024, Census Bureau estimates.
The Oklahoma City metropolitan statistical area posted a 3.2% unemployment rate in June, up from a revised 2.8% in May, according to preliminary data.
