Houston’s Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world, and the region employs approximately 376,000 people in the healthcare industry. | Image by Elena Borisova from Pixabay
Houston’s Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world, and the region employs approximately 376,000 people in the healthcare industry. | Image by Elena Borisova from Pixabay
Houston has a $479 billion local economy that is driven by a host of industries, such as energy and health care, and the Greater Houston Partnership seeks to bring the region's stakeholders together to build on those strengths.
Peter Beard, senior vice president of Regional Workforce Development at the Greater Houston Partnership, recently shared with Southeast Houston Texas News the unique qualities that make the Houston area stand out.
“Known as the ‘Energy Capital of the World,’ Houston is home to virtually every segment of the energy industry,” Beard said. “This includes one of the largest petrochemical manufacturing and refinery complexes in the world – the region has 44% of the nation’s overall base petrochemical manufacturing capacity – and the infrastructure to transport natural gas and oil.”
The region also has the largest medical center in the world – Houston’s Texas Medical Center – and employs approximately 376,000 people in the health care industry, Beard said. Manufacturing in the Houston area – including fabricated metal products, machinery, chemicals, plastics and computer and electronic products – employs approximately 234,200 workers and topped $84.8 billion in 2018.
At the same time, other industries – such as the technology sector – are also growing in Houston. The sector had 235,800 workers in 2019 and generated $28.1 billion toward GDP.
“In Houston, 62.2% of tech occupations are embedded in non-tech sectors, which support our core industries in the digitization and increased use of automation technologies,” Beard said.
Houston has also become a global city, with a diverse and blended technic profile, Beard said.
Helping to build on all of that, the partnership is working to connect education and industry through its Upskill Houston program.
“Houston’s diverse economic base and populations require a workforce with skills across a broad spectrum, which in turn creates economic opportunity for its residents,” Beard said. “The partnership, therefore, has a strong commitment to strengthening the educational outcomes of students in our public schools, increasing postsecondary attainment aligned with our economy, and continuing the development of a skilled workforce.”
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