Greater Omaha Economy

Business Climate
Overall, the case for doing business in Greater Omaha remains strong. In July 2012, CNBC ranked the state of Nebraska #6 on their "Top States for Business" list.  In addition, the state of Nebraska consistently ranks at or near the top of all states for fiscal fitness and legal climate. 

Greater Omaha’s economy benefits from solid population and labor force growth with a relatively diverse industry mix. Greater Omaha has a history of strong business-government partnerships in area development projects. Since 2004, this cooperative redevelopment has resulted in $12.8 billion in new investment metro-wide. In the past decade, the downtown area has seen more than $2 billion in development investment.

Employment 
The eight counties that comprise Greater Omaha have a labor force totaling more than 462,000, of which approximately 442,000 are employed. The table below summarizes Greater Omaha’s labor force trends over the past several years. Since 1990, the area has added over 103,000 people to its labor force.

The table below shows Greater Omaha’s employment distribution by industry compared to the nation.

Greater Omaha has a higher concentration of its employment in financial activities, (Omaha – 8.9 percent vs. U.S. – 5.8 percent); trade, transportation and utilities (20.1 percent vs. 19.1 percent); information (2.4 percent vs. 2.0 percent). This is offset by a relatively smaller share of total employment in the manufacturing (6.7 percent vs. 8.9 percent) and government (14.0 percent vs. 16.4 percent) sectors.

Looking at the past decade, Greater Omaha experienced solid growth, despite two recessions at the national level. The Greater Omaha area added 28,000 jobs from 2002 to 2012, a 6.0 percent increase. The education and healthcare sector (+21.8 percent), the other services sector (+14.9 percent) and the financial activities sector (+11.0 percent) led the job growth.

In 2012, Greater Omaha saw job growth in the leisure and hospitality sector (+2.6 percent) and the education and healthcare services sector (+1.9 percent).

In addition, more than 50 Fortune 500 companies maintain major manufacturing plants or service operations in the Greater Omaha area. These include companies such as Kellogg’s, Lockheed Martin, Tyson Foods, 3M, Aflac, Google, First Data, Pacific Life and Northrop Grumman and Yahoo!.

Corporate Headquarters
Greater Omaha is also home to a broad range of corporate headquarters. Companies from all industry sectors find Omaha an excellent place to conduct business – Werner Enterprises, TD Ameritrade, HDR, Inc., Infogroup, Omaha Steaks and Valmont to name just a few.  There are also more than two dozen insurance companies domiciled in Greater Omaha.  Over half of the two dozen telemarketing/direct response/reservation centers operating in Greater Omaha also have their corporate headquarters located here.

Major Employers
Greater Omaha is fortunate to maintain numerous large employers, the top being Alegent Health, which employs approximately 9,000 people. Major private employers include Methodist Health System, First Data, Union Pacific, First National Bank of Omaha, ConAgra Foods and Mutual of Omaha.

Business Establishments
Greater Omaha’s County Business Pattern data reflects continued growth throughout the eight-county area. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of business establishments increased 28 percent. (This does not include the self-employed, employees of private households, or railroad, agricultural production and most government employees.) Most business establishments are small businesses with approximately 53 percent of all establishments having fewer than five employees, more than 84 percent with fewer than 20 employees and  nearly 3 percent with 100 or more workers.

Net Taxable Sales
Although net taxable sales increased 1.7 percent in 2012, the overall trend since 1990 indicates steady, stable growth in commercial activity. Net taxable sales include sales receipts of all goods subject to the Nebraska state sales tax, except food items sold in grocery stores and prescription drugs, which are not subject to sales tax in Nebraska. Net taxable sales are Greater Omaha’s proxy measure for retail sales.

Net taxable sales of motor vehicles, which is counted separately from net taxable sales, is collected in the county in which the vehicle is subsequently registered. 2012 net taxable sales of motor vehicles posted a 7 percent increase compared to 2011.