It's the economy, stupid
Good news — and bad — for Houston's economy
Looks like we haven't heard the last of the depressing jobs statistics yet: The Houston Business Journal is reporting that the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Associated General Contractors of America show that the Houston area lost 25,500 construction jobs between December 2008 and December 2009, the greatest drop in the nation.
Want better news? Forbes magazine named Fort Bend County the best place in the country to get ahead. The list of areas with the greatest increases in jobs and income was made up entirely of inner ring suburbs of major metropolitan areas. Fort Bend logged a 10 percent increase in income between 2007-08 (going from a median household income of $77,082 to $84,782). The number of jobs went up 4.77 percent (adding a total of almost 6,000) to place Fort Bend first on the list.
Forbes notes, "Like the rest of Texas, Fort Bend gets a healthy chunk of its revenue from the energy sector, but it also benefits from a diversity of industries--including education and hospitality--that has fueled several decades of rapid population growth. Several companies on Forbes' 400 Best Big Companies list are headquartered there, including Texas Instruments, Baker Hughes and Thermo Fisher."
