I was prepping for a client presentation when I finally asked myself a question most contractors never bother to calculate: What is our real change order percentage across every project we’ve ever built? I expected the number to be low. I didn’t expect it to break the narrative the construction industry has leaned on for decades. The data showed that the “unavoidable” change orders everyone warns owners about… aren’t actually inevitable.

Note:  You can find our full research and market analysis as the inspiration for this post in another of our blog posts, or via this link: https://www.stronghold.construction/post/oklahoma-construction-industry-trends-1993-2025-market-research-analysis For thirty years, Oklahoma’s construction industry has been running harder just to stay in place. Wages doubled. Costs tripled. Productivity barely moved. And even when we “win” a low bid, we lose somewhere else — in quality,

Tradespeople Wage Trends (1993–2025) Wages for construction tradespeople in Oklahoma have roughly doubled in nominal terms since the early 1990s. In 1995, the average annual pay for construction workers in Oklahoma was about $22,500 ( bls.govbls.gov ), equivalent to roughly $10–11 per hour  for full-time work. By 2024, Oklahoma’s construction and extraction occupations had a median wage around $23–24 per hour , with mean hourly earnings over $26 ( oklahoma.gov ). As of 2025,