OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) — The State Chamber unveiled its agenda for 2025 and announced a bold new economic growth initiative during its State of Business Forum, which was highlighted by expert economic insight from nationally renowned economist Dr. Marci Rossell.
Hundreds of state and business leaders gathered at the Oklahoma City Convention Center on Tuesday for the Chamber’s annual event.
State Chamber President & CEO Chad Warmington took the stage and laid out the Chamber’s top three priorities for Oklahoma’s 2025 legislative session: workforce development, tax cuts and legal reform. He also announced the development of an ambitious vision plan that will chart the course for major economic development initiatives that aim to make Oklahoma one of the top business states in that nation.
“The reality is sobering that we don’t have a cohesive economic development plan,” said Warmington. “The good news is we’re all working on one. There’s been great progress in the legislature and the governor’s office about building that structure.”
Oklahoma needs a sustained, actionable economic growth plan.
“To address this, we’ve embarked on a bold, ambitious journey to create a framework – what I call our north star – to guide our policy work at the Chamber, but it will also help shape Oklahoma’s economic future,” Warmington said.
The Chamber has partnered with top economic minds from across the nation, including Dr. Christian Ketels, a leading strategy and competitiveness expert who has worked extensively at the Harvard Business School, as well as economic experts at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
Ketels’ work at Harvard has helped nations, regions and cities chart strategic paths to greater competitiveness, Warmington said.
“We’re currently in the diagnostic phase of this transformative effort, but some of the findings are a little troubling,” he said.
A goal is to create a comprehensive, data-driven competitiveness report that will inform the vision plan, according to Warmington.
Ketels’ research has so far found that while labor force participation is strong in Oklahoma, the state is struggling with personal income per capita and average private wages.
“So, more people are working, they’re just not in the good, quality jobs that are the sign of a growing, healthy economy,” Warmington said. “There’s been progress, but we’ve got more work to do.”
The competitiveness report will do the following:
- Compile and analyze critical data to provide a clear, evidence-based narrative of Oklahoma’s economic position.
- Identify key issues that must be addressed to enhance Oklahoma’s competitiveness.
- Inform strategic decisions about where and how Oklahoma should position itself as a top-tier location for business and talent.
The vision plan initiative will be at the forefront of The State Chamber’s 2025 agenda.
“We’re going to engage all of you in helping us take this data and turn it into action,” Warmington said.
Oklahoma business leaders agree a new vision is needed to get Oklahoma ahead.
“Right now there is no plan for the state of Oklahoma,” said Rick Nagel of ACORN. “This is the time to come together and build one.”
The Chamber will work in 2025 to gain more funding for the Oklahoma Workforce Commission. Funds will support a workforce data hub, commission staffing and a wide range of initiatives.
The State Chamber has long been focused on growing Oklahoma’s workforce, which includes ensuring that the state’s education system are providing the career-readiness training needed to provide students the skills they will need to fill in-demand positions across Oklahoma industries.
The Chamber claimed a major victory during the 2023 legislative session with the passage of Senate Bill 621, a pivotal workforce bill that the Chamber vigorously championed.
SB 621 established the Oklahoma Workforce Commission when it was signed into law in June 2023.
The Workforce Commission works to coordinate the state’s workforce efforts. Their objective is to streamline workforce processes into a more efficient and effective system that will grow the economy and produce greater numbers of skilled workers.
SB 621 was born from research which revealed a workforce deficiency in Oklahoma. A State Chamber and Business Roundtable joint survey found that 60 percent of Oklahoma’s business community said workforce shortages were the number one threat to business growth and expansion.
The Chamber’s top 2025 legislative agenda items also include legal reform, specifically disclosure of third party funding agreements that financially support lawsuits; tax incentives for employers who provide their employees childcare assistance; and making career-readiness education in public schools a focus of the state’s A-F Report Card system.
Warmington and The State Chamber Research Foundation provided Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislators research data which showed that Oklahoma was 36,000 workers deficient in filling available jobs.
The Chamber claimed another significant victory last year with the passage of the Graduation Act of 2024, which expanded graduation requirements to include career-readiness training.
The State of Business Forum also included insight from Rossell, an expert economic forecaster who was CNBC’s chief economist.
Rossell spoke about a number of issues that are of concern to working families and businesses alike, including unaffordable residential and commercial real estate and artificial intelligence (AI).
“I do not know how artificial intelligence works, but neither do the people who developed it, so I really don’t feel all that bad,” Rossell said. “I don’t know if artificial intelligence will bring an end to the world as we know it, because I am an economist, not a philosopher. But I can talk about the way artificial intelligence is likely to remap economic activity across our nation and across the globe in ways that communities like yours and states like yours stand to take real advantage of.”
Rossell also discussed the state of the economy. Economic policy in the U.S. is on the verge of dramatic change, she said.
The incoming Trump Administration’s economic plan has four elements that will have global ramifications, according to Rossell.
Those four elements are as follows:
- Tax cuts;
- Deregulation;
- Tariffs; and,
- Escalated deportations.
“Those four elements are the elements of the new economic environment that we are going to be living in, in 2025,” she said.
However, she said there are long-term issues that should not be overlooked, vital statistics of the economy that include where the gross domestic product (GDP) stands, where the unemployment rate stands and where the inflation rate stands.
“Although the unemployment rate has increased, it has not made a meaningful difference in the availability of labor,” Rossell said.
She said unemployment rates would have to increase above 5 percent for employers to feel like labor was easy to find.
