Economic Trends and Outlook
Based on the Comptroller’s new 13-region economic model of Texas, employment in the Central Texas region (covering a 20-county area including the Waco, Killeen-Temple and Byran-College Station metropolitan areas) is projected to grow at a 1.3 percent annual rate, a growth rate slightly slower than that expected for the state as a whole. Growth should be slower in the early part of this time frame and accelerate later, but overall will be below the 1.6 percent growth rate expected for the state as a whole. By 2005, total employment in the Central Texas region should reach more than 572,100, and the region should average adding 9,900 new jobs each year from 2002 to 2005.The Comptroller projects accelerating economic growth for the region after 2002. Although the Central Texas region has generally out-performed Texas as a whole, the next five years should see more subdued growth. The primary challenge for this region will be providing the educational skills needed to train the work force to meet the changing needs of business in an Internet economy and using this period of slower growth to alleviate strains felt within the region as the result of rapid growth.
This report details recent economic changes in the Central Texas region, presents “baseline” economic forecasts for key indicators through 2005, discusses the structural changes that have lead and will lead to economic growth in the region, presents a forecast for occupational changes likely in the region over the next five years and identifies possible target industries for future development. Economic development leaders within the region may wish to use this report to guide development of the region’s economy in upcoming years.
The Last 30 Years
The Central Texas region of Texas saw astounding growth during the last 30 years of the 20th century. In real terms (1992 dollars), gross regional product in this region–the sum total of all value added within the region–increased nearly three-fold, rising from $7.9 billion in 1970 to $21.8 billion in 2000 (Graph 1). This is an average annual growth rate of 3.4 percent.
During this time, the population of the Central Texas region increased more than 62 percent, rising from 564,300 to 916,300. As a result of strong growth in the value of production in the region and somewhat slower population growth, per capita real incomes rose dramatically over the last 30 years. For example, in real terms (1992 dollars) disposable personal income–income not used to pay federal taxes–rose from $11,050 in 1970 to $19,400 in 2000. This means that the average person or household in the region has 76 percent more real purchasing power in 2000 than they did in 1970.
In terms of jobs, growth in this region was very strong during much of the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, employment growth surged with the national recovery in the early 1990s. Unlike much of the rest of the state, this region was largely unaffected by the economic storms of the 1980s precipitated by oil price declines, the devaluation of the Peso and real estate busts. Starting in 1993, employment growth in the region began increasing at a rate of 3 to 5 percent each year, with these gains only recently slowing down to more reasonable levels.
These growth rates determine if the region is playing a larger role in the Texas economy. In terms of population, employment and regional product, the Central Texas region has declined slightly compared to the rest of Texas since 1970. In 1970, the region accounted for 5.1 percent of the state’s employment, 5.0 percent of the state’s population and 4.1 percent of the gross regional product (Graph 2). By the turn of the century, the Central Texas region accounted for 4.4 percent of the state’s employment, 4.5 percent of the state’s population and 3.6 percent of Texas’ value of production. While all of these measures indicate the Central Texas region has declined in economic size relative to other parts of the state, a more appropriate interpretation is that this region has about held its own with most parts of the state, but fell behind some of the truly fast growing parts of Texas.
Shifting Growth Patterns
Within growing economies, important structural shifts occur over time. These shifts often result from regional and even nationwide changes in production, consumption and technology. Understanding these shifts can help identify prospects for future growth within the region.
Table 2 presents the historical employment figures for the Central Texas region for 18 broad industries in 1980, 1990 and 2000. [1] These industries correspond to a functional classification of activities within the region rather than one more traditionally defined through Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes usually used to examine the economic structure of a region. The sectors in this table are ranked according to the average annual growth rate in employment over the last 20 years.
TABLE 2
Central Texas Region Employment and Growth
1980-2000
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Employment in Region Average
Annual
Growth Rate1980 1990 2000 Services to Business 6,474 14,406 29,234 7.8% Tourism and Entertainment 18,326 27,605 39,162 3.9% Personal Services 12,157 17,165 23,736 3.4% Healthcare 20,336 29,413 38,233 3.2% Local Government 26,308 35,958 47,811 3.0% High Tech, Communications, Aviation and Electronics 8,154 12,067 14,203 2.8% Finance, Insurance and Real Estate 19,772 23,824 34,379 2.8% State Government 19,409 28,204 33,552 2.8% Other Services 12,775 15,261 19,608 2.2% Wholesale and Retail Trade 47,173 54,793 71,035 2.1% Construction, Building Materials 25,405 21,942 37,589 2.0% Agriculture, Agr-Related, Ag Processing 35,813 39,353 44,981 1.1% Other Durable Goods Manufacturing 12,470 12,466 15,107 1.0% Other Transportation and Public Utilities 9,217 7,826 10,784 0.8% Other 3,396 4,183 3,961 0.8% Oil and Gas Production, Refining and Petrochemicals 2,981 2,876 3,356 0.6% Federal Government 12,363 14,086 13,020 0.3% Other Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing 11,636 12,426 11,423 (0.1)% Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, topping this list is business services. This growth is largely the result of a long-term reorganization of many existing businesses that increasingly rely on outsourcing. The post-World War II model of industrial organization continues to divide as more and more responsibilities that were previously held within the structure of the parent firm are now outsourced to other companies. In the case of responsibilities such as janitorial services, this is a trend toward specialization. In the case of copy machine repair, or training personnel to use new computer programs, outsourcing is driven by increasing technological sophistication as specially trained workers are needed to operate equipment. Increased use of contract workers that may replace full-time employees is direct outsourcing and drives the growth of business services employment because some of these contract workers are provided through temporary help agencies.
To a large extent the increasing use of contract labor is merely a reshuffling of employment opportunities from other sectors (manufacturing in particular) to this sector. As such, this shift represents a positive change in the productivity and competitiveness of these businesses rather than degradation of manufacturing capacity.
Even the computer industry has seen shifts like these. In the 1970s, this industry was dominated by names like IBM and Wang that built hardware, software and marketed both using their own employees. Now computers are marketed in a wide variety of ways, and few computer manufacturers also are heavily invested in software, or the two functions are separate corporate entities.
The second and third fastest growing sectors both reflect the impact of the “wealth effect” of rising per capita personal income. With rising incomes consumers can spend more on a broad spectrum of goods and services, but more and more of these expenditure get spent on services rather than things. Rising wealth drives increased expenditures on personal services and allows more leisure time–or at least more money to spend on leisure and entertainment. Rising real incomes are behind many of the gains in the entertainment and tourism and personal services industries.
The next fastest growing sector in the Central Texas region during the last 20 years has been health care. Rising health care employment reflects national trends that are dominating regional growth patterns. As incomes grow and as populations age, more and more is spent on health care. The increasing technological sophistication of health care, while improving the effectiveness of health care, also drives up costs. Unfortunately, because health care is a service that most often must be administered by trained professionals on a one-on-one basis, the ability of technological innovations to lower personnel requirements–a by-product of technology seen in many other industries–has not been as broadly felt in health care. As a result, the demand for health care services has risen rapidly over the past 20 years.
The fifth fastest growing sector in this region since 1980 has been local government. This growth reflects a growing population, the effects of decreased public school class sizes requiring the hiring of additional teachers and new prison facilities.
The next fastest growing sector is high tech, communications, aviation and electronics. The Central Texas region has seen growth in nearly all facets of this sector at different times during this period. Throughout this time, the region saw strong growth in aviation and very strong growth in computer programming and data processing, although other industries started from relatively low levels. This growth has been nurtured and fed by the skill sets imparted by local higher educational institutions and an educated workforce.
At the other end of the growth spectrum are the areas in which the region saw slow growth. In some cases, such as oil and gas, this is part of a much wider trend brought on by the distribution of natural resources and industry consolidation. It should be noted that most of the slow job growth industries, or those actually posting job losses, are also industries which tend to see good productivity gains. Although the job picture for these industries in the region has been less positive, the value of production from these industries has been much stronger.
Identifying Regional Comparative Advantage
One key to understanding how a region’s economy grows and evolves is by appreciating what unique advantages the region provides to certain industries, and how those industries have fared over time.
One device for identifying and summarizing the industries in which a region specializes is through a “location quotient.” This descriptive statistic identifies which industries are unique to a region by comparing the percentage of employment in each industry in the region to the percentage of employment that the same industry accounts for in the nation as a whole. If an industry accounts for more of the region’s total employment than it does of the nation’s, the region is seen as specializing in that industry. Moreover, because the industry has flourished in the region, the region is said to have demonstrated a comparative advantage for that industry. In practice, because of measurement issues, the percentage of an industry in the region’s employment base must usually greatly exceed the national percentage for the industry to be truly considered unique to the region.
The industries with location quotients greater than 1.5 in 2000 in the Central Texas region are identified in Table 3 along with the national employment growth rates from 1990 to 2000 of these industries. This list contains industries that are typically found in any list of industries unique to Texas as well as many industries that are unique to the Central Texas region.
TABLE 3
Location Quotients for Key Industries
in the Central Texas Region
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Location
QuotientNational Employment
Average Annual
Growth Rate
1990-2000Wood Buildings and Mobile Homes 13.0 5.7% Primary Nonferrous Smelting and Refining 12.6 (3.0)% Coal Mining 6.2 (4.5)% Pipelines, Except Natural Gas 4.2 (2.8)% Farming 3.9 (0.1)% Hydraulic Cement 3.8 (1.0)% Office and Miscellaneous Furniture and Fixtures 3.6 1.1% Sugar and Confectionery Products 3.2 (0.4)% Plumbing and Nonelectric Heating Equipment 2.7 0.1% Dairy Products 2.3 (1.3)% Converted Paper Products Except Containers 2.2 0.0% Nonmetallic Minerals, Except Fuels 2.2 (1.3)% Nonferrous Foundries 2.1 1.3% Construction and Related Machinery 2.0 0.8% Concrete, Gypsum and Plaster Products 1.9 0.9% Meat Products 1.8 1.8% Paperboard Containers and Boxes 1.8 0.4% Fabricated Structural Metal Products 1.8 1.3% Stone, Clay and Misc. Mineral Products 1.7 (0.8)% Blankbooks and Bookbinding 1.6 (1.2)% Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Products 1.6 1.6% Video Tape Rental 1.5 2.1% Funeral Service and Crematories 1.5 2.3% Miscellaneous Plastics Products 1.5 1.7% Nondepository Holding and Investment Offices 1.5 5.5% Job Training and Related Services 1.5 4.8% Agricultural production along with oil and gas are prominent industries in this table. Topping this list are large producers of mobile homes, aluminum refining activities and coal mining—all rather small industries nationwide, but disproportionately concentrated in the Central Texas region. In many cases, the industries that are heavily concentrated in this region have actually seen nationwide employment declines during the 1990s, indicating that these industries are unlikely to be strong growth prospects in the future.
But while the location quotient is a useful measure to summarize which industries the region tends to have specialized in the past, it is a static measure. A more dynamic approach looks at the growth of industries in the region and compares that to the growth that might have been expected had they followed the same growth pattern of these industries in other parts of the nation. This dynamic approach to looking at the region’s economic structure is known as shift-share analysis.
Like the location quotient, the approach in shift-share analysis is to develop a standard through which to assess if the currently observed level of industry concentration in a region is higher than expected, about what should be expected, or less than expected. If local employment is greater than might otherwise be expected, then the region has demonstrated some strength in attracting the growth of that industry. In practice, the yardstick usually employed is changes in each industry in the national economy, modified somewhat for local conditions.
One result of shift-share analysis is the “regional industry growth differential.” This measure is the ratio of what employment in an industry in the region actually was in the most recent period divided by what industry employment would have been if it had historically grown at the same rate as the industry did across the nation. The interpretation of this measure of dynamic growth potential is that it represents the number of times larger (or smaller) actual employment is in the most recent time period compared to what it would have been if the industry had grown at the same rate as the industry did across the nation. In practice, industries identified as unique in the region through the location quotient measure tend to be those that have demonstrated a sustained period of economic strength in the region, whereas those identified by the growth differential measure can be those starting to show some emerging strength.
Table 4 presents the industries in the Central Texas region that have a regional industry growth differential greater than 1.25 and employed at least 200 workers in 2000. The average annual rate of employment growth in the industry from 1980 to 2000 in the Central Texas region is also shown. The 1.25 cut-off point indicates that industry employment in 2000 in the region was 25 percent larger than would have been expected based on the industry’s employment in 1980 and the growth of the region and industry nationwide from 1980 to 2000. In the same sense as with the static location quotient, these industries have demonstrated a significant level of concentration over time in the Central Texas region and by this growth show that this region has some comparative advantage in their development.
TABLE 4
Industry Growth Differentials in the Central Texas Region
for Industries with at least 200 Employees in 2000
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Industry Regional
Industry Growth
DifferentialAverage Annual
Employment Growth
1980 -2000Communications 2.92 6.0% Weaving, Finishing, Yarn and Thread Mills 2.18 (0.9)% Luggage, Handbags and Leather Products 2.17 (3.3)% Railroad Transportation 1.61 (1.7)% Office and Miscellaneous Furniture and Fixtures 1.33 2.4% Household Furniture 1.33 0.4% Partitions and Fixtures 1.32 2.6% Concrete, Gypsum and Plaster Products 1.27 2.9% Forestry, Fishing, Hunting and Trapping 1.27 2.8% Glass and Glass Products 1.27 1.2% Stone, Clay and Miscellaneous Mineral Products 1.27 1.3% Hydraulic Cement 1.26 (0.7)% Agricultural Services 1.26 7.4% Trucking and Warehousing 1.25 3.8% There is some overlap between this list and Table 3, but it is far from complete. The strong growth of the communications industry in Central Texas attests to this region having a good workforce for this industry and is nearby much of the telecom activity concentrated in the Metroplex region.
Other industries on this list, most notably those related to textiles, leather goods and railroad equipment appear because employment in those industries in the region has declined at a slower pace than the same region nationally. By comparison, the Central Texas region is showing some dominance in the growth of these industries over time, but this involves achieving a larger part of a shrinking pie.
Overall, there are some significant trends toward diversification of the industrial base of the Central Texas region including some industries that require highly skilled workers.
Table 4 confirms some of the comparative advantages identified in the location quotient and helps identify others. The important point is that measures such as the location quotient or the industry growth differential identify industries for which the Central Texas region has demonstrated a comparative advantage. These industries define the competitive character of the region, and these measures will be used in the last section of this report to help identify industries with strong potential to help the region grow in the future.
Growth Forecasts Through 2005
Forecasted changes in the statewide economy and the strong theoretical framework of the 13-region Texas model allows the estimation of baseline forecasts of growth for each region in Texas. Overall, the Central Texas region is expected to grow somewhat slower than the very rapid rate seen in the 1990s, and somewhat slower than the state as a whole.
Through 2005, real gross regional product in the region–the total value added through production within the region–should expand at a 1.7 percent annual rate, from $21.8 billion in 1992 dollars in 2000 to $23.6 billion in 2005. During the 1990s, this region saw its real gross regional product expand at slightly more than a 3.6 percent annual rate.
This pattern is likely to be repeated in terms of employment. Through 2005, employment growth in the Central Texas region should average 1.3 percent annually, down from a 2.6 percent posted from 1990 to 2000 in the region, and slightly below the 1.6 percent expected for the state over the next five years. Nonetheless, the Central Texas region should add nearly 9,900 new jobs annually from 2002 to 2005. During the first five years of the millennium, Central Texas employment should rise from 536,100 in 2000 to 572,100 in 2005. As expected across the state, this rate of growth will be slowest during the next couple of years but will accelerate into 2004 and 2005.
This level of economic growth will accompany only moderate population gains. Population in the Central Texas region is expected to rise from 916,300 in 2000 to 940,200 in 2005.
The employment growth seen in the region will not fall evenly across all industries, but there are two ways to look at the distribution of this growth. Table 5 presents the 25 top growth industries in the region in terms of the number of new jobs they will generate between 2000 and 2005. Large industries dominate this list because even low growth rates applied to a large employment base generate large numbers of new jobs. Four of the top five industries in Table 5 are also among the largest industries.
TABLE 5
Central Texas Industries Adding the Most Jobs
Between 2000 and 2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Regional Employment Jobs
AddedAverage
Annual
Growth2000 2005 1 State Government 33,552 38,351 4,799 2.7% 2 Local Government 47,811 52,143 4,332 1.7% 3 Eating and Drinking Places 27,843 31,004 3,161 2.2% 4 Health Services 5,505 7,575 2,070 6.6% 5 Retail Trade, Exc. Eating and Drinking Places 55,685 57,418 1,733 0.6% 6 Educational Services 7,897 9,445 1,548 3.6% 7 Offices of Health Practitioners 6,644 7,958 1,314 3.7% 8 Computer and Data Processing Services 2,800 4,070 1,270 7.8% 9 Hospitals 17,041 18,267 1,226 1.4% 10 Personnel Supply Services 8,249 9,448 1,199 2.8% 11 Nursing and Personal Care Facilities 7,493 8,665 1,172 2.9% 12 Agricultural Services 6,042 7,144 1,102 3.4% 13 Construction 29,571 30,508 937 0.6% 14 Miscellaneous Business Services 6,213 7,128 915 2.8% 15 Automobile Parking, Repair and Services 4,619 5,525 906 3.6% 16 Miscellaneous Plastics Products 3,116 3,865 749 4.4% 17 Amusement and Recreation Services 3,582 4,312 730 3.8% 18 Wholesale Trade 15,350 16,060 710 0.9% 19 Trucking and Warehousing 5,941 6,482 541 1.8% 20 Child Day Care Services 3,330 3,870 540 3.1% 21 Residential Care 1,548 2,065 517 5.9% 22 Management and Public Relations 5,405 5,921 516 1.8% 23 Communications 3,646 4,140 494 2.6% 24 Membership Organizations 7,001 7,463 462 1.3% 25 Real Estate 10,505 10,919 414 0.8% Many of the industries generating large numbers of new jobs in the Central Texas region through 2005 will be driven by changes in consumer expenditure patterns that have been seen over the past few years. For example, there is a continued shift towards expenditures on consumer services such as restaurants, health services and retail trade. Many of the industries supplying these services employ a large number of people, so that even moderate growth in the demand for these industries can result in some sizeable employment growth.
In other cases, employment of school teachers, police, sanitation workers and most other local government employees will increase as population grows. As a result of even light population and employment growth and the fact that state and local government is a significant employer in the region already, government will likely generate more than 9,000 new jobs over the next few years.
As has been seen in the recent past, health care and computer services will prove a strong job generator in the Central Texas region during the next few years. This should include a broad range of health care professions and nursing services.
A ranking of industries by their likely growth rate from 2000 to 2005, detailed in Table 6, is more revealing of some of the developing forces driving changes in the Central Texas region. More technical, higher skilled workers are needed in these jobs. Topping this list of high-growth industries are jobs in computer and data processing services followed closely by health services, medical equipment manufacturers, other health practitioners and educational services.
TABLE 6
25 Fastest Growing Industries in the Central Texas Region
2000 to 2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Regional Employment Jobs
GainedGrowth 2000 2005 1 Computer and Data Processing Services 2,800 4,070 1,270 7.8% 2 Water and Sanitation 661 946 285 7.4% 3 Health Services 5,505 7,575 2,070 6.6% 4 Residential Care 1,548 2,065 517 5.9% 5 Electronic Components and Accessories 204 269 65 5.7% 6 Miscellaneous Electrical Equipment 251 326 75 5.4% 7 Nonferrous Foundries 547 682 135 4.5% 8 Miscellaneous Plastics Products 3,116 3,865 749 4.4% 9 Medical Equipment, Instruments and Supplies 412 506 94 4.2% 10 Amusement and Recreation Services 3,582 4,312 730 3.8% 11 Miscellaneous Transportation Services 493 593 100 3.8% 12 Air Transportation 1,755 2,109 354 3.7% 13 Individual and Miscellaneous Social Services 1,883 2,261 378 3.7% 14 Toys and Sporting Goods 311 373 62 3.7% 15 Offices of Health Practitioners 6,644 7,958 1,314 3.7% 16 Automobile Parking, Repair and Services 4,619 5,525 906 3.6% 17 Educational Services 7,897 9,445 1,548 3.6% 18 Iron and Steel Foundries 392 468 76 3.6% 19 Household Furniture 714 851 137 3.6% 20 Video Tape Rental 877 1,043 166 3.5% 21 Commercial Sports 406 481 75 3.4% 22 Agricultural Services 6,042 7,144 1,102 3.4% 23 Passenger Transportation Arrangement 471 554 83 3.3% 24 Child Day Care Services 3,330 3,870 540 3.1% 25 Rubber Products and Plastic Hose and Footwear 433 503 70 3.0% The importance of education and the need for work force training is most apparent when looking at how this projected industrial growth translates into occupational change. Table 7 presents the forecast for the 25 occupations expected to add the most positions over the next five years. As in the case of the 25 industries adding the most jobs, this list tends to be dominated by occupations that employ a lot of people at the start of the forecast period, and grow moderately thereafter.
TABLE 7
Occupations in the Central Texas Region Adding the Most Positions
2000-2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Occupations 2000 2005 Occupation
Job GainAverage
Annual
Growth1 Food Preparation and Service 29,545 32,125 2,580 1.7% 2 Teachers, Librarians, Counselors 18,252 20,645 2,393 2.5% 3 Protective Service 16,904 19,230 2,326 2.6% 4 Managerial and Administrative 31,319 33,499 2,180 1.4% 5 Other Clerical and Administrative Support Workers 30,433 32,548 2,115 1.4% 6 Computer Scientists, Mathematicians and Operations Researchers 5,408 7,165 1,757 5.8% 7 Health Service 8,476 9,834 1,358 3.0% 8 Health Assessment and Treating 9,968 11,319 1,351 2.6% 9 Personal Service 8,265 9,573 1,308 3.0% 10 Social, Recreational and Religious Workers 7,277 8,576 1,299 3.3% 11 Health Technicians and Technologists 9,340 10,551 1,211 2.5% 12 Motor Vehicle Operators 13,278 14,477 1,199 1.7% 13 Helpers, Laborers and Material Movers, Hand 18,889 19,898 1,009 1.0% 14 Management Support 17,112 18,017 905 1.0% 15 Cashiers 11,996 12,824 828 1.3% 16 Construction Trades 18,048 18,851 803 0.9% 17 All Other Sales and Related Workers 9,773 10,522 749 1.5% 18 Salespersons, Retail 14,681 15,368 687 0.9% 19 Information Clerks 6,755 7,376 621 1.8% 20 Hand Workers, Including Assembly and Fabrication 7,959 8,576 617 1.5% 21 Garden, Nursery, Greenhouse, Lawn Service Workers 10,296 10,886 590 1.1% 22 Blue Collar Worker Supervisors 7,258 7,783 525 1.4% 23 Cleaning and Building Services, Excluding Private Households 11,022 11,496 474 0.8% 24 Other Machine Setters and Operators and Tenders 6,249 6,690 441 1.4% 25 All Other Service Workers 4,428 4,857 429 1.9% For example, the 13-region model breaks regional employment into 94 occupations. In the case of the Central Texas region, this would mean each occupational category would contain an average of about 5,200 people. Since only one of the top 25 occupational categories generating the most jobs in the region through 2005 has fewer than this average, and most have at least twice that number of jobs, Table 7 identifies primarily those occupations that are growing and employ a large number of workers. Most of these large occupational categories will see moderate growth rates over the next few years, but because of their size generate a large number of new positions. But in some cases, expected rapid growth rates in smaller occupational categories will drive large occupational growth, as is the case with computer scientists.
Table 8 presents the 25 occupational categories expected to grow at the fastest rates though 2005. In this list, the importance of future training and education is evident. It is led by the need for additional computer scientists, followed closely by health service workers, health care diagnosticians, numerical control machine operators, health assessment and treating workers, teachers, librarians and counselors, health technicians, life scientists, information clerks and social scientists. Of the top 25 occupations expected to grow the fastest during the next five years, 12 will require some advanced training beyond high school, and most of these will require either an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree or other advanced degrees. Nearly 49 percent of the jobs gained in the top 25 fastest growing occupations from 2000 to 2005 will require similar advanced training and education.
TABLE 8
25 Fastest Growing Occupations in the Central Texas Region
2000-2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Occupations 2000 2005 Occupational
GainAverage
Annual Gain1 Computer Scientists, Mathematicians and Operations Researchers 5,408 7,165 1,757 5.8% 2 Social, Recreational and Religious Workers 7,277 8,576 1,299 3.3% 3 Metal and Plastic Process Machine Operators 1,435 1,684 249 3.3% 4 Health Service 8,476 9,834 1,358 3.0% 5 Personal Service 8,265 9,573 1,308 3.0% 6 Health Diagnosing 2,876 3,302 426 2.8% 7 Numerical Control Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic 184 211 27 2.8% 8 Protective Service 16,904 19,230 2,326 2.6% 9 Health Assessment and Treating 9,968 11,319 1,351 2.6% 10 Teachers, Librarians, Counselors 18,252 20,645 2,393 2.5% 11 Health Technicians and Technologists 9,340 10,551 1,211 2.5% 12 Combination Machine Tool Setters and Operators and Tenders 251 283 32 2.4% 13 Electric Power Generating Plant Operators and Distributors and Dispatchers 182 203 21 2.2% 14 Writers, Artists and Entertainers 3,623 4,016 393 2.1% 15 All Other Transportation and Material Moving Equipment Operators 669 741 72 2.1% 16 Counter and Rental Clerks 1,794 1,986 192 2.1% 17 Life Scientists 811 896 85 2.0% 18 Water and Liquid Waste Treatment Plant and Systems Operators 719 794 75 2.0% 19 All Other Service Workers 4,428 4,857 429 1.9% 20 Post Clerks and Mail Carriers 2,014 2,203 189 1.8% 21 Information Clerks 6,755 7,376 621 1.8% 22 Motor Vehicle Operators 13,278 14,477 1,199 1.7% 23 Social Scientists 995 1,083 88 1.7% 24 Metal Fabricating Machine Operators 454 494 40 1.7% 25 Food Preparation and Service 29,545 32,125 2,580 1.7%
Endnote[1] State and Local government sectors were not defined separately until 1979.