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 Houston now has more manufacturing jobs than any other city in the United States, making it number one on a very important list. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reports that total non-farm employment in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,499,900, an increase of 81,100 jobs from March 2006 to March 2007. Manufacturing in the Greater Houston Area added 7,300 of those jobs, growing at a rate of 3.3 percent rate. This growth is impressive considering that, at the national level, manufacturing employment was down 0.7 percent for that same twelve months.
Houston, with 225,732 manufacturing jobs, currently accounts for 18.5 percent of all Texas' manufacturing employment. The leading manufacturers in terms of employment in Houston are the oil industry, plastic products, and, third, industrial organic chemicals according to the Business Cycle Index (BCI) published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Houston economy slowed during the first part of this year due to a drop in petroleum prices, but beginning in March, the Houston economy again made a strong growth surge.
According to this research, Texas is becoming a strong U.S. manufacturing center, and Houston is a leader in the state. In view of the strong competitive pressures created by a newly globalized market, Houston clearly has benefits such as good location for distribution of supplies and products, excellent distribution facilities including one of the world’s largest seaports, a good labor pool, and a relatively low cost of living, low construction costs, and plenty of available land for expansions.
While many of the nation's largest urban areas, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco continue to lag in economic growth, Houston is moving full steam head. Fortunately, Houston has not faced some of the difficulties of many other large cities that can be attributed to high housing costs, business overheads, and taxes. While energy remains a hot growth area, Houston continues to diversify into areas such as the technology sector and continues to see rapid job growth. With diversified manufacturing and supporting businesses, Houston moves closer and closer to being the major business and industrial city in the United States. |
