According to the Wednesday, November 29, 1995 issue of Wall Street Journal, High-technology is one of the fastest growing job categories in Texas. Today there are more people working in high-tech businesses than in the oil and gas industry.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recent study shows that employment in high-tech industries totaled 3.4% of the state's nonagricultural work force in 1994, compared with 2% in oil and natural-gas business. These figures suggest that the high-tech jobs are growing at twice the rate of the total nonagricultural jobs in Texas.
The study also concludes that Texas is doing dramatically better than the national average in some high-tech areas. For example, jobs in software production have more than doubled in Texas from 1988 to 1994, and computer programming employment increased 96%. Nationally, those job categories each grew 76% over the same period.
The study also points out some surprises within the state, Austin, generally viewed as the state's high-technology Mecca, holds only 20% of total jobs in the industry. The much-larger Dallas-Fort Worth area, however, is the undisputed king in high-technology employment with 52% of the total, much of that in telecommunications and manufacturing of electronic components, such as semiconductors and circuit boards. Houston holds 17% of the state's high-tech jobs.
The issue to keep in mind about these high-tech jobs, is that not all high-tech classified positions command high dollar salaries. For example, an electrical engineer can earn $21 an hour, but an assembly line worker earns about $8 an hour.
Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, November 29, 1995