 World-class cultural arts, spectacular restaurants, premium shopping, professional sports teams, and thriving performance arts makes Houston an exciting major city. Cultural diversity provides a slew of festivals, retail, visual art, eateries, and overall character to this southern treasure. As the seventh largest metropolitan city in the United States, the Houston metropolitan area hosts 5.3 million residents in 10 counties, according the Greater Houston Partnership. Greater Houston, consisting of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) makes 2 million out of the 5.3 million.
Covering more than 600 square miles, how does a city the size of Houston attempt to support entertainment and prompt consumer spending? How does a city like Houston, who spent $449 million dollars to build the Reliant Stadium (according to Metrodome), continue its strong financial flow?
Manufacturing plays a huge role in the success of Houston’s economy. With cost-effective transportation options, Houston is able to access global markets with four deepwater ports, two major railroads, and nearly 1,000 trucking companies that travel throughout the area’s U.S. interstate highway system. The Port of Houston, the world’s sixth largest port, is a major means of export and importing for Houston. Home to more than 10,700 manufacturing establishments, Houston leads the U.S. as a major provider of energy, chemicals, electronics, and software.
According to the Greater Houston Partnership, goods producing sectors in Houston, Texas have reached a 4.2 percent job growth last year, and expect an expansion of another 3.8 percent, creating 17,700 jobs. In the field of energy, fourteen of the nation’s top 20 natural gas transmissions companies (57.7% of U.S. capacity) are headquartered in Houston. Petroleum pipelines in Houston make of 44.2% of the U.S. capacity with 15 of the nation’s top 20 companies. Houston leads the U.S. in chemical manufacturing, producing over 600 chemicals from 382 manufacturers, providing over 3,400 jobs.
Electronics and software also provide many jobs for Houstonians. Hewlett Packard, one of Houston’s 250 electronics establishments, employs more people in Houston, than any other HP facility in the world. While employing over 2,000 people, Houston-area electronics manufacture products used in energy service, aerospace, as well as medical and consumer equipment. With more than 300 software development companies, the software industry gains more than $4.2 million dollars annually in Houston.Consumer spending is directly affected by the flow of the economy. Employment, furthermore, job security, prompts consumers to spend their money on things they like and don’t need. Entertainment such as theatre, restaurant dining, professional sports and concert events accept this flow of money from consumers, thus giving back to consumers in a cycle. For example, if restaurants in Houston are supported by local eaters, then the employees of those establishments have stronger job security. If many of these local eaters happened to be employed by SYSCO’s Houston branch (just as an example), then SYSCO continues to have current and potential clients that need wholesale food products from these restaurants. Although SYSCO operates nationally, the continual demand for wholesale products in Houston restaurants, ensures job security within the Houston SYSCO branch as well.
Another more indirect example is a hypothetical case. Let’s say X Brand Tool Manufacturers have a factory that employees 500 people. X Brand tools are sold in retail hardware stores all across the U.S. If the economy declines, and consumers stop spending money on items like tools, then X Brand Tool Manufacturer will make less money in profit. If the decrease of income is substantial, then X Brand Tool Manufacturer will need to terminate employees. This reaction to economic decline is cyclical and works in the reverse as well. If the economy is strong, consumers might buy more tools, and X Brand Tool Manufacturer (as well as other manufacturers) will have increased sales, profit and demand—thus creating more jobs for laborers.
As the largest city in Texas, Houston thrives as a center for business and industry. Manufacturing provides Houstonians with thousands of jobs, thus creating a major influence in a positive economic flow. Interestingly, every dollar we spend on consumer goods is actually helping us keep our own jobs.
Source: http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/economytrade.html
Source: http://www.houston.org/industryGuide/manufacturing.asp
Source: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/Building/537/Reliant_Stadium.php
Source: http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/business.html |
