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The big movers and shakers when it comes to employment in Oklahoma.

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October 23, 2012

An Argument Against State Tax Breaks for Oklahoma’s Oil and Gas Industry

A drilling rig near Edmond, Okla.

State tax breaks for Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry do little to encourage drilling, and amount to an unnecessary corporate subsidy, Oklahoma Policy Institute director David Blatt argues in a new issue brief. Installation of these tax credits began in the early 1990s to offset losses from new and risky production techniques, like horizontal and [...]

Bacon Inflation: What You Need to Know

Bacon

The Oklahoma Pork Council has issued a dire warning: “Pork prices are going to rise in 2013, there’s just no way around it,” executive director Ron Lindsey tells the Shawnee News-Star‘s Carmen Bourlon. Bacon will be most affected by the porcine price hike, though customers in the United States probably won’t suffer any pork shortages, [...]

October 22, 2012

Uncertainty Over American Airlines Layoffs is Taxing Tulsa Families

American Airlines

While the total number of layoffs targeted for the bankrupt airline‘s Tulsa maintenance has declined from thousands to hundreds, months of employment anxiety is taking a toll on workers and their families. American originally planned to cut about 2,700 jobs at the Tulsa base. That number was whittled down to 1,300, “and with early retirements [...]

October 19, 2012

Aubrey McClendon on “Mad Money”: Chesapeake’s a Target for Short Sellers

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon sat down with Mad Money‘s Jim Cramer and talked about the company’s future and its recent controversy. It was McClendon’s first televised interview since questions concerning the intertwined finances of the Oklahoma’s City company and its CEO surfaced earlier this year. In the interview, “McClendon blamed much of the negative [...]

October 16, 2012

Vision2 Will Help Make Tulsa Base ‘Irreplaceable,’ But Won’t Affect Layoffs

American Airlines

On November 6, Tulsa County voters will weigh-in on Vision2, a $748.8 million package of upgrades to spur economic development and improve quality of life. About $212 million is earmarked for upgrades and renovations benefitting American Airlines, the bankrupt airline that employs about 7,000 at a maintenance base in Tulsa. Public officials, the Tulsa Metro [...]

October 10, 2012

Why Oklahoma’s Biggest Green Energy Obstacle Might be Prices, Not Politics

Oklahoma Solar Energy

Differences in the two presidential candidates’ energy policies are well illustrated here in Oklahoma, a state with vast oil and gas interests and budding green energy potential. Petroleum is a powerful force, and Mitt Romney’s energy platform synchronizes with those of oil and natural gas companies, which drive Oklahoma’s economy. But the interests of Oklahoma’s [...]

October 9, 2012

Oklahoma’s Cushing Oil Hub Illustrated

This illustration by Businessweek shows the pipeline pathways in and out of the crude oil storage hub at Cushing. Fields of tanks are fed by an 11-state pipeline network that stretches from North Dakota to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

It’s hard to wrap your head around the oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Much of the pipeline infrastructure is underground, and what is visible is as expansive as it is unrevealing: Hulking, featureless cylinders in fenced-off fields. Thick steel obscures valuable oil storage and transport data, forcing traders to spy on the vast tankscape with [...]

October 8, 2012

American Airlines Will Lay Off 370 Workers at Tulsa Maintenance Base

American Airlines Ongoing Labor Dispute Causes Delays And Cancellations For The Carrier

Three hundred mechanics and about 70 fleet service workers at the bankrupt airline’s Tulsa maintenance base will be laid off by February. The carrier and the Transport Workers Union announced the numbers on Friday. Layoff notices to fleet service workers are being mailed this week and to mechanics in November, the Tulsa World‘s D.R. Stewart [...]

October 5, 2012

Why Oklahoma Has More Jobs Than Qualified Workers

There aren’t enough qualified Oklahomans to keep up with the growth in jobs related to the aerospace, energy, and information technology industries. At a committee meeting Thursday, lawmakers, education officials and agency officials discussed ways to fix the skills gap, which is expected to worsen. The biggest growth area in Oklahoma is in jobs that [...]

October 4, 2012
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