Economic Trends and Outlook
Based on the Comptroller’s new 13-region economic model of Texas, employment in the Coastal Bend region (covering a 19-county area surrounding the Corpus Christi and Victoria metropolitan areas) is projected to grow at a 1.7 percent annual rate, about the same rate seen over the last 30 years, but slightly slower than the 1.9 percent growth rate expected for the state as a whole. By 2005, total employment in the Coastal Bend region should reach more than 426,500.Based on historical data since 1970, the Comptroller projects stable economic growth for the region. Although Coastal Bend region has seen some flux during the last 2 years of the 20th century, the next five years should see growth in line with that seen during the late 1990s. The primary challenge for this region is providing the educational skills needed to train the work force to meet the changing needs of business in an Internet economy.
This report details recent economic changes in the Coastal Bend region, presents “baseline” economic forecasts for key indicators through 2005, discusses the structural changes that have led 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 Coastal Bend region surrounding Corpus Christi and Victoria saw significant 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—nearly doubled from $9.1 billion in 1970 to $17.5 billion in 2000 (Graph 1). This is an average annual growth rate of 3.2 percent.
During this time, the population of the Coastal Bend region increased 29.5 percent, from 564,400 to 749,900. As a result of 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 $10,600 in 1970 to $19,000 in 2000. This means that the average person or household in the region has 80 percent more real purchasing power in 2000 than they did in 1970.
In terms of jobs, growth in this region was good during much of the 1970s and early 1980s. From about 1982 to 1990, the region was buffeted with many of the same economic storms that hit much of Texas—oil boom and bust, real estate ups and downs, and a national recession in the early 1990s. Starting in 1990, employment growth in the region resumed an upward path and since that time has grown at a 1.9 percent annual rate, compared with the 30-year annual growth rate of 1.7 percent.
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 Coastal Bend region has seen less growth compared with the rest of Texas since 1970. In 1970, the region accounted for 5.0 percent of the state’s population, 4.7 percent of the state’s employment and 4.7 percent of the gross regional product (Graph 2). By the turn of the century, the region accounted for 3.6 percent of the state’s population, 3.2 percent of the state’s employment base and 2.8 percent of the value of production.
Shifting Growth Patterns
Even within slowly growing economies, important structural shifts occur over time. These shifts often result from regional and even nationwide changes in production, consumption and technology. Analyzing these shifts can help identify prospects for future growth within the region.
Table 2 presents the historical employment figures for the Coastal Bend 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
Coastal Bend 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 Healthcare 14,436 23,370 37,969 5.0% Services to Business 11,978 20,348 24,483 3.6% State Government 5,036 6,112 10,183 3.6% Tourism and Entertainment 18,362 26,130 34,326 3.2% Personal Services 9,862 11,895 16,934 2.7% Finance, Insurance and Real Estate 18,421 19,762 24,870 1.5% Other Services 13,973 14,698 18,399 1.4% Other Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing 11,888 10,611 15,350 1.3% Local Government 32,353 36,614 41,285 1.2% High Tech, Communications, Aviation and Electronics 6,776 6,501 7,925 0.8% Construction, Building Materials 27,792 22,555 31,065 0.6% Other Durable Goods Manufacturing 5,132 5,086 5,506 0.4% Wholesale and Retail Trade 49,780 49,056 51,823 0.2% Agriculture, Agr-related, Ag Processing 30,000 28,421 29,669 (0.1)% Other Transportation and Public Utilities 9,601 7,762 9,304 (0.2)% Federal Government 8,129 9,447 7,769 (0.2)% Other 2,954 2,308 1,832 (2.4)% Oil and Gas Production, Refining and Petrochemicals 25,892 19,055 15,264 (2.6)% Topping this list is health care. Here, national trends are dominating regional growth. As incomes grow, more and more is spent on health care. 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. Since health care is a service that most often must be administered by trained professionals on a one-on-one basis, the movement of technological innovations to lower personnel requirements—a bi-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 second fastest growing industry is business services. This 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 break down 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 towards 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.
The third fastest growing sector has been state government employment. This largely reflects the growing prison facilities in the region, state tourism facilities and growth at state institutions of higher education.
The third and fourth fastest growing sectors both reflect the same influence-increasing wealth. With rising incomes consumers can spend more on personal services and have 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, tourism and personal services industries.
At the other end of the growth spectrum are the areas in which the region has not seen the same growth rate. In some cases, such as in the oil and gas industry, this is part of a much wider trend brought on by the distribution of natural resources and industry consolidation. But the appearance of some industries nearer the bottom of this list than the top, such as high tech, communication, aviation and electronics, may seem puzzling in light to the focus on the growth of these technologically-based industries. In part, these industries have been recovering in the region in the later 1990s after absorbing some job losses in the manufacture of electronic components during the late 1980s. Some parts of this sector, such as computer programming and data processing, have been strong employment growth sectors throughout the last 20 years and will likely continue to be strong sources of growth.
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 Coastal Bend 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 Coastal Bend region.
Prominent in this list, of course, are various components of the oil and gas industry—refining, plastics, to pipelines, to chemicals. All together eight of the twenty-one industries listed in Table 3 are somehow related to the oil and gas industry and include seven of the top eight industries in Table 3. The employment growth experience of these industries in the nation over the last decade has declined; only one of the eight oil and gas-related industries listed in the table has seen employment growth from 1990 to 2000
TABLE 3
Location Quotients for Key Industries
in the Coastal Bend Region
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Location
QuotientNational Employment
Average Annual
Growth Rate
1990-2000Petroleum Refining 15.4 (3.0)% Oil and Gas Field Services 14.8 (0.8)% Industrial Chemicals 12.4 (1.7)% Pipelines, Except Natural Gas 7.9 (2.8)% Luggage, Handbags and Leather Products 7.0 (2.3)% Crude Petroleum, Natural Gas and Gas Liquids 5.3 (4.9)% Plastics, Materials and Synthetics 5.2 (1.7)% Metal Mining 3.8 (2.8)% Miscellaneous Equipment Rental and Leasing 3.2 2.4% Converted Paper Products, Except Containers 3.1 0.0% Health Services 3.0 5.8% Farm 2.9 (0.1)% Metal Cans and Shipping Containers 2.4 (3.3)% Nonmetallic Minerals, Except Fuels 2.3 (1.3)% Fabricated Structural Metal Products 2.2 1.3% Miscellaneous Petroleum and Coal Products 2.1 0.7% Funeral Service and Crematories 1.9 2.3% Miscellaneous Repair Services 1.9 1.7% Gas Utilities 1.8 (2.2)% Concrete, Gypsum and Plaster Products 1.8 0.9% Laundry, Cleaning and Shoe Repair 1.5 1.6% One growth industry appearing on Table 3 indicates that the region is demonstrating some strength in activities related to white-collar employment: health care. The Coastal Bend region is home to a significant concentration of activities related to health care and this industry is expanding nationally.
As seen in Table 3, many of the industries in the Coastal Bend region that have grown there due to the region’s unique attributes are unlikely to be able to carry the region further into the next millennium. In particular, the oil and gas industry including related facilities for refining, plastics and chemicals have created fewer new jobs over the past decade.
But while the location quotient is a useful measure to summarize the industries in which the region 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 Coastal Bend 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 Coastal Bend 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 Coastal Bend region and by this growth show that this region has some comparative advantage in their development.
TABLE 4
Industry Growth Differentials in the Coastal Bend 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 -2000Miscellaneous Plastics Products 4.58 9.8% Ship and Boat Building and Repairing 3.44 4.2% Fabricated Structural Metal Products 2.75 4.2% Educational Services 2.41 7.3% Petroleum Refining 2.36 0.6% Industrial Chemicals 2.10 1.4% Plastics Materials and Synthetics 2.10 1.5% Air Transportation 2.01 8.2% Luggage, Handbags and Leather Products 1.85 (0.9)% State Government 1.77 3.6% Local and Interurban Passenger Transit 1.64 5.2% Individual and Miscellaneous Social Services 1.46 5.6% Child Day Care Services 1.46 5.5% Job Training and Related Services 1.46 4.8% Membership Organizations 1.46 3.5% Residential Care 1.46 8.2% Nursing and Personal Care Facilities 1.42 4.2% Health Services 1.42 8.6% Hospitals 1.42 3.2% Offices of Health Practitioners 1.42 5.2% Farm 1.33 (0.3)% There is some overlap between this list and Table 3, but it is far from complete. The region continues to show strength in attracting parts of the oil and gas industry, particularly the processing of oil and gas products. The coastal location provides the environment for the development of activities related to ship and boat building. The region has demonstrated some competitive strength in attracting and developing parts of the health care industry including residential care, nursing and personal care, miscellaneous health care specialties, hospitals and general health practitioners.
Overall, analysis indicates there are significant trends toward diversification of the industrial base of the Coastal Bend region including industries that require more highly skilled workers. In addition to skilled trades needed in various parts of the industries related to oil and gas, the growth of health care fits this pattern as does growth in educational services.
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 Coastal Bend 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 allow the estimation of baseline forecasts of growth for each region in Texas. Overall, the Coastal Bend region is expected to grow at about its long-term trend rate, but slightly slower than in 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 2.0 annual rate, from $17.1 billion in 1992 dollars in 2000 to $18.8 billion in 2005. During the 1990s, this region saw its real gross regional product expand at a 2.2 percent annual rate, so in value terms this forecast is for just slightly slower growth over the next few years than was seen during the 1990s.
This pattern is likely to be repeated in terms of employment. Through 2005, employment growth in the Coastal Bend region should average 1.7 percent annually, down slightly from a 1.9 percent posted from 1990 to 2000 in the region. This growth rate matches the long-term employment growth rate established over the last 30 years of the 20th century. The region should add about 33,800 additional jobs from 2000 to 2005, rising from 392,700 in 2000 to 426,500 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 reasonable population gains. Population in the region is expected to rise from 730,900 in 2000 to 749,900 in 2005.
The employment growth seen in the region are unlikely to 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 increases in growth rates applied to a large employment base generate large numbers of new jobs. The second, third and fourth ranked industries in terms of jobs added to 2005 are also the largest three industries.
TABLE 5
Coastal Bend 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 Health Services 9,789 12,679 2,890 5.3% 2 Construction 29,778 31,839 2,061 1.3% 3 Retail Trade, Except Eating and Drinking Places 40,415 42,364 1,949 0.9% 4 Local Government 41,285 43,202 1,917 0.9% 5 Miscellaneous Business Services 7,507 9,113 1,606 4.0% 6 Eating and Drinking Places 22,602 24,195 1,593 1.4% 7 Oil and Gas Field Services 9,063 10,587 1,524 3.2% 8 Agricultural Services 6,336 7,854 1,518 4.4% 9 Offices of Health Practitioners 9,150 10,317 1,167 2.4% 10 Personnel Supply Services 5,490 6,652 1,162 3.9% 11 Communications 3,083 4,229 1,146 6.5% 12 Wholesale Trade 11,408 12,524 1,116 1.9% 13 Management and Public Relations 3,187 4,211 1,024 5.7% 14 Trucking and Warehousing 4,717 5,717 1,000 3.9% 15 Legal Services 3,809 4,608 799 3.9% 16 Real Estate 9,556 10,353 797 1.6% 17 Private Households 4,072 4,838 766 3.5% 18 Amusement and Recreation Services 3,424 4,135 711 3.8% 19 Miscellaneous Equipment Rental and Leasing 2,842 3,414 572 3.7% 20 Nursing and Personal Care Facilities 5,913 6,436 523 1.7% 21 State Government 10,183 10,656 473 0.9% 22 Research and Testing Services 1,329 1,791 462 6.1% 23 Services to Buildings 2,852 3,287 435 2.9% 24 Computer and Data Processing Services 721 1,109 388 9.0% 25 Local and Interurban Passenger Transit 833 1,219 386 7.9% Many of the industries generating large numbers of new jobs in the Coastal Bend 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 toward expenditures on consumer services such as restaurants, health services, and amusement expenditures. Many of the industries supplying these services employ a large number of people, so even modest growth in the demand for these industries can result in some sizeable employment growth. But in the case of health services, an expected 5.3 percent annual growth applied to a sizeable employment base will generate a substantial number of new jobs in healthcare.
In other cases, employment of school teachers, police, sanitation workers and most other local government employees will increase as population grows. Even moderate population and employment growth, plus the fact that local government is a significant employer in the region already, will likely generate more than 1,900 new jobs over the next few years. Construction is also expected to add more jobs with a forecasted growth rate of 1.3 percent annually in the Coastal Bend region.
Also fueling strong growth will be services provided to business, including personnel supply services, legal services, management and public relations and miscellaneous business services. This will serve to aid businesses involved in the growth of trade with Mexico and will also help existing firms continue a trend of outsourcing jobs, a strong trend seen in the business community over the past 20 years. Increased trade with Mexico will also fuel growth in trucking and warehousing activity.
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 Coastal Bend region. More technical, higher skilled workers are needed in these jobs. Topping this list of high-growth industries are computer and data processing services, followed closely by communications, research and testing services, management and public relations, health care, legal services, educational services and engineering services—all industries relying on a well-trained, highly educated work force.
TABLE 6
25 Fastest Growing Industries in the Coastal Bend Region
2000 to 2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Regional Employment Jobs
GainedPercentage
Growth2000 2005 1 Computer and Data Processing Services 721 1,109 388 9.0% 2 Miscellaneous Transportation Services 286 438 152 8.9% 3 Local and Interurban Passenger Transit 833 1,219 386 7.9% 4 Communications 3,083 4,229 1,146 6.5% 5 Research and Testing Services 1,329 1,791 462 6.1% 6 Water Transportation 584 784 200 6.1% 7 Management and Public Relations 3,187 4,211 1,024 5.7% 8 Health Services 9,789 12,679 2,890 5.3% 9 Residential Care 954 1,197 243 4.6% 10 Water and Sanitation 438 548 110 4.6% 11 Agricultural Services 6,336 7,854 1,518 4.4% 12 Educational Services 1,465 1,783 318 4.0% 13 Pipelines, Except Natural Gas 287 349 62 4.0% 14 Miscellaneous Business Services 7,507 9,113 1,606 4.0% 15 Trucking and Warehousing 4,717 5,717 1,000 3.9% 16 Personnel Supply Services 5,490 6,652 1,162 3.9% 17 Legal Services 3,809 4,608 799 3.9% 18 Amusement and Recreation Services 3,424 4,135 711 3.8% 19 Accounting, Auditing and Other Services 1,727 2,081 354 3.8% 20 Miscellaneous Equipment Rental and Leasing 2,842 3,414 572 3.7% 21 Private Households 4,072 4,838 766 3.5% 22 Commercial Sports 486 577 91 3.5% 23 Oil and Gas Field Services 9,063 10,587 1,524 3.2% 24 Engineering and Architectural Services 2,235 2,600 365 3.1% 25 Fabricated Structural Metal Products 2,439 2,816 377 2.9% The importance of education and the need for work force training is probably best seen 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.
For example, the 13-region model breaks regional employment into 94 occupations. In the case of the Coastal Bend, this would mean each occupational category would contain an average of about 4,200 people. The 25 categories generating the most jobs in the region through 2005 typically have at least twice that number of jobs. Most of these large occupational categories will see moderate growth rates over the next few years, and because of their size generate a large number of new positions. In some cases expected rapid growth rates in smaller occupational categories will drive large occupational growth, as is the case with computer scientists.
TABLE 7
Occupations in the Coastal Bend 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 Managerial and Administrative 25,306 27,698 2,392 1.8% 2 Other Clerical and Administrative Support Workers 22,766 24,621 1,855 1.6% 3 Computer Scientists, Mathematicians and Operations Researchers 4,132 5,777 1,645 6.9% 4 Motor Vehicle Operators 10,308 11,759 1,451 2.7% 5 Food Preparation and Service 24,097 25,388 1,291 1.0% 6 Protective Service 11,494 12,735 1,241 2.1% 7 Construction Trades 16,927 18,146 1,219 1.4% 8 Helpers, Laborers and Material Movers 15,199 16,377 1,178 1.5% 9 Gardeners, Nursery, Greenhouse and Lawn Services 7,570 8,677 1,107 2.8% 10 Personal Service 7,504 8,601 1,097 2.8% 11 Health Service 7,835 8,927 1,092 2.6% 12 Health Technicians and Technologists 8,265 9,331 1,066 2.5% 13 Health Assessment and Treating 9,204 10,228 1,024 2.1% 14 Management Support 12,673 13,689 1,016 1.6% 15 All Other Sales and Related Workers 7,763 8,752 989 2.4% 16 Teachers, Librarians and Counselors 10,377 11,227 850 1.6% 17 Information Clerks 5,854 6,580 726 2.4% 18 Private Household Workers 3,596 4,303 707 3.7% 19 Salespersons, Retail 10,684 11,378 694 1.3% 20 Social, Recreational and Religious Workers 5,276 5,957 681 2.5% 21 Cashiers 9,016 9,696 680 1.5% 22 Blue Collar Worker Supervisors 6,370 6,894 524 1.6% 23 Other Machine Setters and Operators and Tenders 6,307 6,813 506 1.6% 24 Hand Workers, Including Assembly and Fabricators 4,544 5,041 497 2.1% 25 Engineers 3,410 3,876 466 2.6% 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, includes health service workers, engineers, health technicians, information clerks, health assessment workers, managerial and administrative workers as well as teachers. Nine of the top 25 occupations expected to grow the fastest during the next five years 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.
TABLE 8
25 Fastest Growing Occupations in the Coastal Bend Region
2000-2005
(Projected)
SOURCES: Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts; and REMI.
Occupations 2000 2005 Occupational
GainAverage
Annual
Percent Gain1 Computer Programmers, Mathematicians and Operations Researchers 4,132 5,777 1,645 6.9% 2 Private Household Workers 3,596 4,303 707 3.7% 3 Gardeners, Nursery, Greenhouse and Lawn Services 7,570 8,677 1,107 2.8% 4 Personal Service 7,504 8,601 1,097 2.8% 5 Motor Vehicle Operators 10,308 11,759 1,451 2.7% 6 Health Service 7,835 8,927 1,092 2.6% 7 Engineers 3,410 3,866 456 2.5% 8 Social, Recreational and Religious Workers 5,276 5,957 681 2.5% 9 Health Technicians and Technologists 8,265 9,331 1,066 2.5% 10 All Other Sales and Related Workers 7,763 8,752 989 2.4% 11 Information Clerks 5,854 6,580 726 2.4% 12 Other Mechanics, Installers and Repairers 4,211 4,687 476 2.2% 13 Health Assessment and Treating 9,204 10,228 1,024 2.1% 14 Hand Workers, Including Assembly and Fabricators 4,544 5,041 497 2.1% 15 Protective Service 11,494 12,735 1,241 2.1% 16 Marketing and Sales Worker Supervisors 4,665 5,119 454 1.9% 17 Managerial and Administrative 25,306 27,698 2,392 1.8% 18 Blue Collar Worker Supervisors 6,370 6,894 524 1.6% 19 Teachers, Librarians and Counselors 10,377 11,227 850 1.6% 20 Other Clerical and Administrative Support Workers 22,766 24,621 1,855 1.6% 21 Other Machine Setters, Operators and Tenders 6,307 6,813 506 1.6% 22 Management Support 12,673 13,689 1,016 1.6% 23 Helpers, Laborers and Material Movers 15,199 16,377 1,178 1.5% 24 Cashiers 9,016 9,696 680 1.5% 25 Construction Trades 16,927 18,146 1,219 1.4%
Endnote[1] State and Local government sectors were not defined separately until 1979.