OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) – The 2025 Oklahoma Business Leaders Poll shows that a strong majority of Oklahoma’s business leaders feel optimistic about Oklahoma’s economy but want the state to invest more in health care and infrastructure.
The State Chamber Research Foundation (SCRF) released this year’s Business Leaders Poll on Tuesday.
The Business Leaders Poll (BLP) is an annual collaboration from the The State Chamber of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Business Roundtable and the State Chamber Research Foundation (SCRF).
BLP is a survey that probes Oklahoma’s business community, questioning business leaders and executives about the state of business, the economy, workforce and education. It also gauges business leaders on emerging issues such as artificial intelligence (AI).
“It’s exciting that this is the fifth year that we’ve done this. Now, we’re beginning to build long-term data where we can really track trends,” said Chad Warmington, president and CEO of The State Chamber.
As in previous years, the Business Leaders Poll seeks to create a comprehensive overview of business leaders’ top concerns and provide a guide for growth to the legislators who shape the state’s economic and business development initiatives. This year’s Business Leaders Poll surveyed more than 300 business owners and executives across Oklahoma.
The latest poll shows that Oklahoma’s business leaders and executive are confident that Oklahoma’s economy is on the right track.
Seventy percent of business leaders and executives who participated in the poll said that they believe the state’s economy is heading in a good direction and that they are more optimistic about it than they are in the national economy.
The outlook on investing in Oklahoma is another promising statistic from the poll. Eighty-eight percent of business leaders say they plan to invest in the state. Those same leaders say workforce availability is the primary barrier to investing.
“The numbers show companies are bullish on the future of Oklahoma’s economy and are ready to put their money back into our state,” said Amanda Hall of SCRF. “They’re struggling to find the workers with the skills that they need for their business to grow. Workforce is still the top concern but it’s not as clear cut as in years past. The survey shows tax reform is important but not at the cost of key infrastructure and services.”
Workforce has been the top concern among Oklahoma’s business leaders for the past few years, and it remained so this year. Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said workforce is their top concern. However, that percentage is down from 32 percent in 2024 and 34 percent in 2023.
“Oklahoma business leaders remain optimistic about the state’s future. However, workforce challenges—particularly in recruiting and retention—remain significant obstacles to growth,” said Mark Funke, president and CEO of Oklahoma Business Roundtable. “The data shows business leaders believe that greater investment in marketing Oklahoma is essential to attract talent and promote the state’s products and economic opportunities.”
This year’s Business Leaders Poll included a question about health care.
“That has continued to be something that’s just sort of bubbled up among the business community as the health care issues become critically important,” Funke said.
A large majority of business leaders are concerned about health in the state, with 84 percent saying improving health outcomes would strengthen the state’s workforce and reduce costs.
“Our business leaders this year said health care really is a problem and needs to be dealt with in some manner to provide a more healthy workforce,” Funke said. “All these things sort of build into the workforce issue. Whether it’s education, whether it’s health care, all revolve around workforce. And those are the things we need to pay attention to.”
Business leaders also want the state to make greater investment in infrastructure. The trucking industry is especially concerned about infrastructure, according to Funke.
“People in the trucking industry say that they can’t carry certain loads over certain highways because of the weight constrictions. And so, they have to move their product in a much different way around a much longer route to get to where they need to go. We’ve heard a lot about the lack of side roads on our rural highways and things of that nature that create problems from an accident standpoint,” Funke said. “I think our business leaders are saying very clearly that an investment in infrastructure in our state, in our roads, our bridges and the way we allow transportation to get around is critically important for their business and for other infrastructure.”
Infrastructure is one of the many important ways Oklahoma must up its game to bring greater business investment into the state, Warmington said.
The State Chamber will continue to lead the discussion on how to make Oklahoma more competitive regionally and nationally when it comes to attracting top companies and growing the economy, Warmington said.
“In Oklahoma, we always talk about how great our wage costs are, how cheap energy is, real estate/land’s cheap, tax burdens are overall pretty low. But those are table stakes—every place has that, or you can’t compete,” Warmington said.
There are more pressing concerns related to competition, Warmington said.
“Where we’re going to be able to have to compete is on infrastructure, efficiency, innovation. Those are the areas that we’re really lacking,” he said. “We’ve got all the basics to be really competitive. But what we don’t have is the infrastructure Mark was talking about. We don’t have a culture of innovation, of entrepreneurship. We don’t have a culture of good access to capital. I think those are the things that Oklahoma could really lean into. Stop talking about the things we’re already good at. That’s not what’s going to make us more competitive.”
Click here to read the full 2025 Oklahoma Business Leaders Poll.
