• Nonfarm payroll employment in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area averaged 2,539,000 in 2009, ending the year at 2,529,500.
• Service-providing industries, which account for 81percent of Houston MSA jobs, have garnered 93 percent of Houston's net job growth over the past 10 years.

Source: Texas Workforce Commission, January 2010

•  A location quotient is the ratio of an industry's share of local employment to its share of national employment. As a rule of thumb, a location quotient over 1.2 signifies that an industry exports its products or services outside the region in significant amounts. Houston location quotients (March '10) include 15.84for oil and gas extraction and 6.88 for support activities for mining, reflecting the overwhelming concentration of the nation's oil and gas exploration and production activities - largely corporate headquarters, other offices and research facilities, plus oilfield services - in this region.
• Other industries in which Houston location quotients exceed 1.2 include construction (1.64, with an LQ of 2.55 for heavy and civil engineering construction), fabricated metal products manufacturing (2.04), computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing (2.44), petroleum refining (6.37), chemicals manufacturing (2.39), utilities (1.53), air transportation (2.71), pipeline transportation (11.49), rental and leasing services (1.44) and architectural, engineering and related services (2.41).

Workforce: Employment Projections
Houston's greatest demand is for professional and other knowledge-based occupations.

Unemployment Rate
Houston's unemployment rate has been well below the nation's since November 2008.

Employment Change in Major Metros
Houston is less affected by job losses than the average large metro area.

• None of the 39 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas with more than 1.5 million residents posted a net job gain in the 12 months ending March 2010. Houston registered a net loss of 60,200 jobs, or 2.3 percent. The average proportional change among the 39 largest metros was a net loss of 2.6 percent.
• (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics press release, April 28, 2010.)

Houston Wages - Manufacturing
Houston has an ample supply of workers serving the region's manufacturing industry.

 
Houston Wages - Office and Clerical

Houston has an ample supply of office and clerical workers

The Work Ethic in Houston
The work ethic is alive and well - and flourishing - in Houston.

• According to Rice University's annual Houston Area Survey, a large majority of Houstonians agree that "if you work hard in this city, eventually you will succeed."
• The confidence that personal effort will be rewarded in Houston transcends racial and ethnic categories. In 2007, 87 percent of Anglos and 79 percent of blacks agreed with the statement while agreement among Hispanics - who are more likely to be both younger and more recent arrivals to Houston - reached 89 percent.
• In contrast to Houston's strongly positive attitude, agreement with this same statement in national samples over the same period has ranged only from 58 to 63 percent. The difference between Houston and the nation as a whole is statistically significant and has endured through the entire range of the regional business cycle.

List of strikes in the Houston Region
May 2004 - September 2009

Gross Area Product Forecast
Real Gross Area Product in Houston shows sustained growth over the next quarter century.

• Real (i.e., net of inflation) Gross Area Product (GAP) in the Houston region is expected to grow 3.76 percent annually, on average, from '05 to '35 in The Perryman Group's forecast.
• Compound annual growth rates over the forecast period are highest in information (4.46 percent), durable goods manufacturing (4.23 percent), nondurable goods manufacturing (4.05 percent) and finance, insurance and real estate (4.04 percent).
• "Energy-related industries play important roles in the economic development of the Houston region, even though the economy [is] highly diversified," says M. Ray Perryman, the firm's president. Between '05 and '35, the real gross product of the MSA is expected to expand by more than $510 billion in 2000 dollars. That growth will put real gross product for the Houston metropolitan area at 2.7 times today's level.
• "Houston," adds Perryman, "has been cited recently by leading organizations as among the best places for business…" The 2009 Fortune500 list shows 29 firms headquartered in the 10-county Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

Economic Base Diversification
Houston's economic base has diversified, sharply decreasing its dependence on upstream energy.

• The economic base is the portion of a region's economy that produces goods or services for export outside the region. Houston's base, which declined 4.6 percent during the 12 months ending February '10, comprises: upstream energy (oil and gas exploration and production, oilfield equipment manufacturing and wholesaling, and pipeline transportation), down 4.3 percent; downstream energy (refining and chemicals manufacturing), down 4.6 percent; and diversifying, or energy-insensitive, sectors, off 1.5 percent. Since '86, the energy-insensitive portion of Houston's economic base has grown at a compound annual rate of 5.6 percent.
• Upstream sectors suffer when oil and gas prices fall; refining and chemicals benefit because the cost of feedstocks is reduced; energy-insensitive sectors are affected only to the extent that energy costs impinge on operating costs. Today, upstream sectors represent just over a third of Houston's economic base jobs, versus more than two-thirds before the '80s recession and still more than half at the bottom of that recession in '87. Energy-insensitive sectors, which were less than a quarter of base employment in '86, topped the 50 percent mark in late '99. With the exceptional growth of upstream energy employment in '07 and '08, energy-insensitive base jobs have seen their share drop slightly below 50 percent.
• Diversifying sectors account for 73 percent of net job growth in the base since '86.
• Substantial structural alteration in Houston's economy over the past 27 years has reduced Houston's vulnerability to downturns in upstream energy, which nonetheless continues to influence Houston far more than it does the nation as a whole.