Oklahoma City is quietly climbing the safety charts. The metro now employs about 12 workplace safety managers per 10,000 workers, a ratio that puts OKC 14th among large U.S. metros. That concentration reflects how the local industry mix and recent construction activity are driving demand for compliance and risk management staff, offering a snapshot of how employers are staffing up safety teams as projects and operations expand.
As reported by The Journal Record, the ranking comes from an analysis by Trace One that measured workplace safety manager employment across all 50 states and nearly 300 metropolitan areas. The Journal Record noted that the metric is meant to flag where oversight burdens may be heaviest.
How the study counted safety staff
Trace One defined workplace safety managers as the combination of occupational health and safety specialists and technicians (SOC 19-5011 and 19-5012) and used the BLS 2025 OEWS data to calculate ratios per 10,000 employees. The firm’s analysis found that national employment in those roles rose about 165% from 2010 to 2025, far outpacing overall job growth, and it shows that metros with concentrated industrial, energy or extraction activity tend to have higher safety staffing densities. Those patterns help explain why OKC, with manufacturing, construction and growing tech infrastructure projects, ranks above many more service oriented metros.
Federal projections point to more hiring
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for occupational health and safety specialists and technicians is projected to grow about 12% from 2024 to 2034, well above the 3% projected for all occupations. The agency also estimates roughly 18,300 openings per year on average over the decade, a mix of new roles and replacement hiring.
What it means for OKC employers and workers
The Trace One ranking dovetails with recent local reporting that data center construction and other projects are reshaping Oklahoma’s labor market. The Journal Record has noted that data centers create short term construction and engineering demand while many hyperscale facilities keep long term staffing lean. Trace One also found that wages for safety managers have lagged broader wage growth (about 37.9% since 2010 versus 50.7% for all workers), a gap that could complicate recruitment as demand climbs.
For employers, workforce trainers and city planners, the new ranking is a cue to watch hiring pipelines, certification programs and pay competitiveness for EHS roles. For residents, it is another lens on how OKC’s industrial and tech growth is reshaping local jobs and the teams that keep workplaces running safely.
