The economy of Omaha, Nebraska has served as a major commercial hub in the Midwestern United States since its founding in 1854. Dubbed the "Motor Mouth City" by The New York Times, Omaha is widely regarded as the telecommunications capital of the United States. The city's economy includes agriculture, food processing, insurance, transportation, healthcare and education. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway has lived in Omaha all of his life, as have the ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Railroad and Mutual of Omaha Companies, all Fortune 500 corporations.
According to the Nebraska Department of Labor, in March 2008 the unemployment rate in Omaha was 3.9 percent. Between 2000 and 2005 Omaha's job growth was 0.70 percent. In 2006 the sales tax rate was seven percent, with income tax at 6.68 percent. That same year the median family income was $56,869, with a 1.80 percent housing price gain.
In September 2007 the city ranked eighth among the 50 largest cities in the United States in both per-capita billionaires and Fortune 500 companies. According to USA Today, no other city in the country could claim a ranking as high as Omaha on both lists. The paper identified the richest residents of Omaha as Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, worth $1.5 billion; Walter Scott of Peter Kiewit Sons, worth $1.2 billion; and Warren Buffett, then valued by Forbes magazine at $44 billion. The city ranks fourteenth among the states for philanthropic giving, according to the Catalogue of Philanthropy.
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