Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership

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.

Greater Omaha Labor Force/Work Force Trends
Employment by Place of Residence 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Labor Force Total 442,313 448,226 455,863 451,330 452,853 458,095 462,718
Total Employed Workers 427,119 433,079 439,470 428,538 429,114 435,165 442,197
Unemployment 15,194 15,147 16,393 22,792 23,739 22,930 20,521
Unemployment Rate 3.4% 3.4% 3.6% 5.0% 5.2% 5.0% 4.4%
               
Employment by Place of Work (jobs) 456,800 463,600 469,800 459,500 456,500 461,300 467,400
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics  

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

 
Employment Distribution by Industry - 2012
(number of jobs in thousands)
Industry Greater Omaha United States
Number of Jobs Percentage Number of Jobs Percentage
Construction/Mining 21.1 4.5% 6,492 4.9%
Manufacturing 31.4 6.7% 11,919 8.9%
Trade, Transportation and Utilities 93.8 20.1% 25,516 19.1%
Information 11.4 2.4% 2,678 2.0%
Financial Activities 41.6 8.9% 7,786 5.8%
Professional and Business Services 66.7 14.3% 17,930 13.4%
Education and Healthcare Services 73.1 15.6% 20,319 15.2%
Leisure and Hospitality 45.6 9.8% 13,746 10.3%
Other Services 17.4 3.7% 5,437 4.1%
Government 65.5 14.0% 21,917 16.4%
Total Employment 467.4 100.0% 133,739 100.0%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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).

The strength of Greater Omaha’s economy can also be seen in its unemployment rate, which is consistently lower than the national unemployment rate. The 2012 annual unemployment rate for Greater Omaha was 4.4 percent and 3.9 percent for the state of Nebraska, both less than the U.S. rate of 8.1 percent.

The following table shows the unemployment rate trends for Greater Omaha, Nebraska and the nation.

Unemployment Rate Trends
Year Omaha NE US
2001 3.3 3.1 4.7
2002 3.9 3.7 5.8
2003 4.3 4.0 6.0
2004 4.3 3.9 5.5
2005 4.3 3.9 5.1
2006 3.4 3.0 4.6
2007 3.3 2.9 4.6
2008 3.6 3.2 5.8
2009 5.1 4.8 9.3
2010 4.2 4.7 9.6
2011 5.0 4.4 8.9
2012 4.4 3.9 8.1
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Fortune 500 Headquarters
Greater Omaha is home to the headquarters of five Fortune 500 companies.

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.

Greater Omaha Business Establishments

 

1990 2010 Percent Change

 

Number of Establishments Payroll ($1000) Number of Establishments Payroll ($1000) 1990 - 2010

Total

17,363 5,822,108 22,291 16,291,943 28.38%
Cass County, NE 384 38,149 533 97,440 38.54%
Douglas County, NE 12,450 4,854,691 14,962 13,363,227 20.18%
Sarpy County, NE 1,429 422,303 3,125 1,431,710 118.68%
Saunders County, NE 370 28,934 499 96,098 34.86%
Washington County, NE 411 52,277 537 232,525 30.66%
Harrison County, IA 327 28,455 348 846,851 6.42%
Mills, County, IA 230 47,492 290 58,093 26.09%
Pottawattamie County, IA 1,782 349,807 1,978 925,999 12.12%
Source: County Business Patterns, 1990 and 2010, U.S. Department of Commerce

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. 

Greater Omaha* Net Taxable Sales
Year Total Net Taxable Sales (000) Net Taxable Sales of Motor Vehicles (000)
1980 $2,589,068 $223,377
1990 $4,055,334 $499,033
2000 $7,006,016 $970,867
2005 $8,669,035 $1,055,036
2006 $8,796,364 $1,013,663
2007 $9,116,077 $1,092,087
2008 $9,349,486 $1,093,683
2009 $8,974,240 $1,093,115
2010 $9,242,676 $1,152,824
2011 $9,639,415 $1,224,899
2012 $9,813,261 $1,317,213
*Nebraska Counties of MSA (Cass, Douglas, Sarpy, Washington, Saunders)
Source: Nebraska Department of Revenue